[Odonata-l] Leg position in windy conditions -- teneral or typical?

[Bob Glotzhober]

First a brief report, then a question.

Bill Hull of Cincinnati had noted that there were only two records for
Ohio for the Eastern Ringtail, Erpetogomphus designatus. They dated 1913
from a published record by James Hine for Hamilton County (includes
Cincinnati), and a 1954 specimen at OSU taken by Homer Price in Paulding
Co. (extreme NW Ohio). Since Bill lives in Hamilton County, and is an
excellent field biologist who loves a challenge, he decided to spend
part of this summer taking on the challenge of re-finding this critter.
Bill succeeded with that at a spot along the Whitewater River in extreme
SW Ohio  on August 23rd - and got some great photos. He was kind enough
to invite me down, and we both revisited the site on August 26th. We
spent a long, hot day, but finally found them again - seeing perhaps
half a dozen or more specimens. We each got more photos, and I collected
a single voucher. I'll leave the details of Bill's search and find for
him to report some other place and time - maybe he'll be willing to
write it up for Argia (hint, hint).

 

What I am curious about, however, is leg position in perched
individuals. The photo Bill sent me from the 23rd (a very still morning)
shows the critter perched on a grass blade in what I would consider a
typical, 6-footed, spread-leg pattern. One of mine (image 2773) the legs
are somewhat similar and "typical", although two of the legs are
slightly wrapped around the blade of grass. On the other two images
(2783 and 2791) the legs and feet are wrapped around the grass stem or
the flower head in clutch-like grip which I recall only seeing on
captured-posed specimens - i.e. where they had stress from cooling or
wing-folding techniques to keep them from flying for close up
photography. That is not the case on any of these images - all were
taken from free-flying, un-captured specimens. 

 

The only thing I can think is that this may be a result of the fact that
these are semi-teneral adults and they were seeking shelter in a little
hollow in the grassland on a day with an approximately 10 mph breeze.
Their wings are clearly firm and no longer teneral, but they were
clustered off-river in a grassland and comparison with colors of other
specimens on the web suggest their colors are still somewhat paler than
normal (or is that an eastern variation compared with specimens from
further west?). Has anyone else observed clutching behavior like this?
i.e. "wrapping your arms around a tree trunk so the hurricane does not
blow you away" type behavior?

 

I'm eager for any thoughts or observations list members might share.

 

Bob G.

 

====================

Robert C. Glotzhober             614/ 298-2054

Senior Curator, Natural History         bglotzhober at ohiohistory.org

Ohio Historical Society         Fax: 614/ 297-2546

1982 Velma Avenue

Columbus, Ohio  43211-2497

 

Visit the website of the Ohio Historical Society at:

  www.ohiohistory.org and check out our online collections catalog.

See or purchase Dragonflies and Damselflies of Ohio or the Cedar Bog
Symposium II at OHS's new E-Store:  http://www.ohiohistorystore.com/ 

Visit the Ohio Odonata website at:  
http://www.marietta.edu/~odonata/index.html

 

 

 

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