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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Aztec Dancer

Written by Diane Beauton

Wildwood Park, Thousand Oaks, Ca. is the natural habitat for all kinds of insects that crawl and fly! On our way back down the trail we spotted a dragonfly and snapped a shot of him. Yes him...we know it's a him because of his bright neon blue color. The males, especially, are brightly colored in blue, green, yellow, orange, red and bronze neons.


What we didn't know is this was not a dragonfly but a damselfly. Now one might think 'damsel' refers to female but it does not, it refers to a smaller insect in the dragonfly family.


Since we didn't know that, we thought others might not know either and our readers might find a little information about this guy interesting.


There are approximately 450 varieties of this species but the size of the torso, color, wing placement and distance between the eyes helps to identify this one as an Argia nahuana also known as Aztec Dancer. Notice the eyes on our damselfly are set apart; whereas most dragonflies eyes touch.


Being predators, these little guys have their important place in the balancing of the ecosystem by feasting on other insects including harmful ones. They eat mosquitoes, gnats, ants, termites, spiders, bees and even butterflies. So again we learn something new about the world we share with things that crawlers and fly!

4 comments:

  1. Great research and fact finding!

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  2. cindy!! (thanks for stopping by & leaving me a note...and inviting me to visit your piece of the world!!) it'll bring back memories...i lived around los angeles for 13 yrs...left there in '87 to head for FL.

    anyway...i LOVE nature...critters...creepy crawlies...flowers...looks like i can have my fill wandering through here!

    LOVE this damsel fly!! great shot! :]laura

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  3. Ooops! just noticed it was Di who posted the damsel fly pic & info...i guess there's more than Cindy doing this blog??!! anyway...thanks...for the great post & i'll be back to wander through the past....

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  4. Welcome to our little corner of the world, Laura. How funny that I came across a former Los Angeleno! My sister Diane and I are both authors of this blog, LOL!

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