Friday 20 July 2018

Bluet Surprise - Eastern Ontario

I was down in the Kingston area for the first part of this week doing some more insect surveys on various properties and had an unexpected odonate discovery.  While I was on one property that was altogether fairly boring, I decided to check a small drainage ditch that fed into a small wetland for damselflies.  I saw a few bluets, was able to capture one and then went about the process of identifying it (looking at its genetalia).  At first I thought it was a Familiar Bluet, but the appendages seemed to fit better with River Bluet, a species that is only known from a few locations in Ontario, mostly near the GTA and further west.  After looking at it the photos more closely at home, I was fairly convinced that it was indeed a River Bluet, and after posting it to iNaturalist, other folks concurred.

This species is designated as S2 (Imperiled) in Ontario.

River Bluet


The Red Bubble is my observation of River Bluet
This was a new species of odonate for me and just goes to show that there is interesting things to see even in the most boring of places!

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