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> > Help identify this...dragonfly?



Fallen513 has attached these 2 pictures to aid in identification. The message is below.
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Fallen513July 31st, 2010, 7:37 pm
Posts: 2No idea about this guy, not necessarily important to trout but I knew someone here can probably nail it or at least point me in the right direction. It's the first time I've seen these type of antennae on a dragonfly type insect.

Thanks in advance for your help!

GONZOJuly 31st, 2010, 7:59 pm
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681		Fallen513,

It's an Antlion (Myrmeleontidae), possibly Myrmeleon.
Fallen513August 1st, 2010, 9:38 am
Posts: 2Thanks so much Gonzo! You're amazing! :)

-Seth
GutcutterAugust 1st, 2010, 1:03 pm
Pennsylvania

Posts: 470		awesome photo, seth
All men who fish may in turn be divided into two parts: those who fish for trout and those who don't. Trout fishermen are a race apart: they are a dedicated crew- indolent, improvident, and quietly mad.

-Robert Traver, Trout Madness
Jmd123August 3rd, 2010, 11:56 pm
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2611		Yep, definitely not a member of the order Odonata - their antennae are so short you have to look for them with a magnifying glass at minimum (pretty hard to do when they're on the wing...). Most definitely an antlion as Gonzo says. You don't see the adults very often, unless perhaps you're an entomologist who stays up late at night staring at white sheets hung beneath blacklights (I admit I have indeed done this...).

However, their larvae can often be spotted in sandy areas as little dimples in the soil. This is where they get their name - those are pitfall traps for hapless, unsuspecting ants who tumble in to their deaths at the curved, sickle-shaped jaws of their killers. You can see this in action by dropping in your own hapless ants...This is the stuff of which SOOOOOO many science fiction horror films are dreamed up, as in just imagine if they got to be three feet long. Then again, I suppose we would learn to avoid funny funnel-shaped dimples in the sand, although doubtless a few hapless children or pets might fall in...Yep, good thing they are so small...

Jonathon

P.S. This critter belongs to the order Neuroptera, home of such other amazing creatures as the mantisfly, snakefly, and owlfly...and also lacewings and even one who's larvae feed on freshwater sponges!
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
KcnalAugust 10th, 2010, 7:47 pm
Alabama

Posts: 6		A truly amazing picture! I feel the same way about the answer. Great educational material...thanks to all!
SayfuNovember 4th, 2011, 9:03 am
Posts: 560
Brought me to think of something I saw on a commercially tied flies page. Rainy Flies Co. has a dry damsel that has perpendicular wings to the body. I have had some fun, and productive days fishing dry damsels on lakes, but have tied the wings parallel to the body, and assumed the difference in the position of the wings between a damsel, and the perpendicular wings of a dragon fly. Do damsels end up spent on the water with their wings in a perpendicular position by chance? And because of the notion the wings are parallel to the body on a damsel, I do not even include wings on some patterns.

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