Seeing Spots All Day

"You can hawk and perch in our yard all day if you want," I told her.

And she did. 

A spotted dragonfly chose a spot in our pollinator garden--a bamboo stake overlooking a patch of Verbena and African blue basil--and she stayed most of the day.

At first I mistook the insect for the twelve-spotted dragonfly,  Libellula pulchella. All I could see were spots! Bohart Museum of Entomology associate Greg Kareofelas of Davis who studies and photographs dragonflies and butterflies and other insects, identified it as a female whitetail, Plathemis lydia.

Plathemis lydia? It's a common dragonfly found across much of North America, according to Wikipedia. "The male's chunky white body (about 5 cm long), combined with the brownish-black bands on its otherwise translucent wings, give it a checkered look. Females have a brown body and a different pattern of wing spots, closely resembling that of female Libellula pulchella, the twelve-spotted skimmer. Whitetail females can be distinguished by their smaller size, shorter bodies, and white zigzag abdominal stripes; the abdominal stripes of L. puchella are straight and yellow."

"The common whitetail can be seen hawking for mosquitoes and other small flying insects over ponds, marshes, and slow-moving rivers in most regions except the higher mountain regions," according to Wikipedia. "Periods of activity vary between regions; for example in California, the adults are active from April to September.^"

This one was hawking and perching within several yards of our fish pond, as honey bees, carpenter bees, long-horned digger bees, European wool carder bees, Gulf Fritillaries and monarchs staked out their own territory.  

I thought Ms. Libellula pulchella would move as soon as I approached her, but she held her ground--or stake. Occasionally, she'd leave to grab a meal and then return to her perch.

Another dragonfly circled but didn't land. I was hoping for a male, the one with the chunky white abdomen...

(Note: The Bohart Museum of Entomology offers a "Dragonflies of California" poster, featuring 18 images of dragonflies, in its gift shop at 1124 Academic Surge, Crocker Lane, UC Davis. The posters are the work of Bohart associates Greg Kareofelas and entomologist Fran Keller, who received her doctorate in entomology at UC Davis.)