New Dragonfly (Celithemis eponina) Documented for the CB

Crumby was unhappy. Yes. Crumby was very unhappy because the continued rainy and cloudy conditions kept Crumby inside. Ah caint go out and visit with my little friends, Crumby whined.

No. Crumby knew he couldn’t take pictures in the dark with his Olympus camera. But then Crumby remembered. I have the FL 36 flash here somewhere. I shall dig it up and take pictures of my little friends employing the artificial light of the flash.

Well. It’s a good thing Crumby remembered that flash. He might have totally missed out on the new, documented, dragonfly record for the CB if he had forgotten the dang flash. Turns out, if you take the lens hood off the Sigma 150mm macro, the flash works OK at a reasonable distance from the little friend that’s fixing to get its picture took. What’s a reasonable distance? That may depend on the little friend. If your little friend is like Crumby, a mile might be too close. But most of these bugs can handle a foot from the camera. They are not so high strung as Crumby.

The common name for this species is Halloween Pennant. When Crumby first espied these, there were at least two of them, he thought they were amberwings. But then Crumby says to himself, These are too dern big for amberwings. Thus, thanks to the flash and Crumby’s keen observational skills, skills typical of a Druid Ovate, we have a new record.

You know, we get new documented records at the CB almost every day. But most of the new records are for bugs that nobody much follows. However,everybody follows dragonflies. Hence the big deal.