[Odonata-l] Variegated meadowhawks, Sympetrum corruptum

[Kathy &/or Dave Biggs]

Hello,

I'm pasting in a message/question  from a friend in the Owen's Valley. 
She and her husband have questions about Variegated meadowhawks, 
Sympetrum corruptum and how long their development takes, etc. I'm 
curious too. Thanks for any help!
---

Hi Kathy.     Glad you liked Ron's photos of the variegateds at Farmer 
Pond.   This is the location we took you and Dave to the first time you 
came here, where Dave caught the Black Saddlebags by hand.
 
Anyway, this is a bit of a mystery.  We were surprised to see so many 
varigateds there on February 25, and , like you, we thought they were 
migrants, but they looked too fresh and new!   So, my first question is, 
how long do variegateds remain in the nymph stage? 
 
Farmer Pond doesn't always have water in it.  It will only have water 
all year, if it happens to be a big water year, but that is not normally 
the case.  The last couple years have been dry, and so has the pond.  
However, it is filled with water every fall for the duck hunters.  They 
start letting water in about the third week of October.  Water remains 
over winter, and then the pond dries up again in the spring. 
 
As the pond was filling last fall, we first saw variegateds there on 
October 27, and the last time we saw any was on December 10.  They were 
especially numerous on the 2nd of November, and again on December 2.  On 
both those dates, there were lots of pairs in tandem flying above the 
pond, and ovipositing.  Second question  --- / Could the nymphs from 
 /_those_/  eggs from late last year have recently turned into the 
dragonflies that we saw  on February 25???/
// 
Ron wants to know whether nymphs can survive down in any mud that might 
remain under a dried up pond until water returns.  I said that it didn't 
seem likely to me that they could survive those kinds of conditions, but 
then we hardly know enough about their life cycle to even begin to 
answer a question like this.
 
Oh yes.  Keeping a journal is absolutely indispensable!!   Boy, am I 
glad to have all my notes from last year!  I will do an even better job 
with it this year.  
 
Barbara Oriti
Bishop, CA

-- 
California Dragonflies	       http://www.sonic.net/dragonfly
Southwest Dragonflies	       http://southwestdragonflies.net/
Bigsnest Wildlife Pond	       http://www.bigsnestpond.net/
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Kathy and Dave Biggs	       bigsnest at sonic.net      707-823-2911
308 Bloomfield Rd.             Sebastopol, CA  95472 
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