Subject: [Tweeters] dragonflies in Panama
Date: Oct 7 12:24:39 2005
From: Dennis Paulson - dennispaulson at comcast.net


In response to Valerie Elliott's interesting post about the ABA
Conference and birding in Panama:

The big damselfly with blue-tipped wings that you saw is Megaloprepus
caerulatus (it has no official common name, but Blue-winged Helicopter
should be acceptable). There are other kinds of helicopters that are a
bit smaller, all in a small New World tropical family (one species in
East Africa). Actually, the body length of the biggest Megaloprepus is
about 4-1/2 inches, the wing spread about 8 inches (trust me, I've got
many specimens here). There is no species of dragonfly with a greater
wing spread. This species never fails to thrill me when I see it, and I
can still vividly remember my first sighting in Veracruz. There are
photos at http://www2.ups.edu/biology/museum/ODphotos.html under
Pseudostigmatidae.

You're right that there is a big gap to fill in tropical dragonfly
field guides. I have long-range plans to do a somewhat generalized
dragonfly field guide for Mexico and Central America. There are way too
many species and way too few photos at present to do a guide to all the
species.

Dennis
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
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