[Odonata-l] Tail-dipping Female Octogomphus (Grappletail)

[Marion Dobbs]

My post won't add anything at all toour body of knowledge about Odonata, but 
I think laughter is a good thing, too.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who flashed on "Octomom" when I saw the 
subject line of Jim's very interesting message. And when I mentioned it to 
him, he confessed that he had, in fact, momentarily considered referring to 
the female of this species as "Octomomphus."

Marion Dobbs
Rome, GA




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Johnson" <jt_johnson at comcast.net>
To: <nw_odonata at yahoogroups.com>; <CalOdes at yahoogroups.com>; 
<Odonata-l at listhost.ups.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 11:02 PM
Subject: [Odonata-l] Tail-dipping Female Octogomphus (Grappletail)


> Greetings,
>
> I've been corresponding with a few individuals about this subject, but I
> thought the wider community would find it interesting. Sorry for
> cross-posting...
>
> A little background:
>
> First, the Gold Lake outlet/Salt Creek head in the Oregon Cascades near
> Willamette Pass harbors a large population of Octogomphus specularis
> (Grappletail). At their peak, the density of individuals at the outlet and
> immediate area is staggering for a dragonfly, matched in my experience 
> only
> in certain circumstances such as heavy migrational concentrations and when
> large numbers seek shade in extremely hot, sunny conditions. It really has
> to be witnessed to be appreciated. The high density of individuals at this
> location in and of itself is very interesting and I'd like to know if 
> there
> are other locations with similar densities of Octogomphus.
>