Spot-winged Glider: New yard insect

A Spot-winged Glider (Pantala hymenaea) perches on a dead twig in my front yard serviceberry. The stout dragonfly made occasional patrols over my front garden, which is how I first saw it. If you didn't see it rocket into the serviceberry and this perch, good luck ever spotting it.

I made a short early morning foray to photograph a really interesting - and photogenic - plant, the Ragged Fringed Orchid (Platanthera lacera). They were in absolutely peak bloom, and some specimens towered to two feet. I'll post more on these orchids later. Upon return to the homestead, I saw this dragonfly hunting above the garden, and knew what it was. As Spot-winged Gliders seldom seem to land, at least where a photographer can get at them, I didn't have much hope of making photos. And was pleasantly surprised when it did perch in an accessible spot.

As the animal was fairly high in the treelet, and gliders can be quite wary, I pulled out the 800mm lens, mounted it on a tripod, and worked the bug that way. It was still there when I went inside, and likely hunted the yard the rest of the day. This is an oft-adopted perching posture for Spot-winged Gliders: abdomen tip curved upwards.

Rainpool gliders in the genus Pantala are great wanderers and very nomadic, staging large and conspicuous migrations. They are sometimes in mixed swarms of other migratory dragons such as Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacera), Common Green Darners (Anax junius), and Wandering Gliders (Pantala flavescens).

Spot-winged Glider on the wing, as they are usually seen. I shot this one, bizarrely enough, exactly one year ago today: June 28, 2022, at Kankakee Sands in northwestern Indiana. As described above, it was in a mixed species swarm feeding over a diverse prairie.

My dragonfly list for the yard is pretty robust and I'm sure I've missed many species that have visited. All of the native flora in the yard produces good insect crops, and this means plenty of aerial prey for the dragonflies.