Dragonfly ID

[Paul Lagasi]

Wish you could find a really good book on Canadian Dragonflies, First off is this a Basket-Tailed Dragonfly..If so is it a Common or a Mantled..taken in Eastern Canada (Ontario) June 11th, 2008

[Julie Kenward]

Boy, you stumped me. I was going to say it was a twelve-spotted skimmer but the big black spots near the edge of the body on the wings don't match up. I'm not sure what you have there...

As for the image, I like the horizontal presentation although it could probably go vertical as well. I would consider cloning out the few hot spots in the BG foliage and I'd maybe crop a tad off the left side, taking out the fuzzy stalk that is not quite all in the frame. You could probably do another round of sharpening on the bug as well.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
Not sure either on the ID! I generally like cleaner BG's to not distract from the DFly and I also like Julie's crop recommendation. Let's hope we get an ID!

[Paul Lagasi]

Would have liked this to be a verticle crop but this image was almost full frame, I cropped about 20% from top and right, removed the fuzz from left and spots...sharpened only dragonfly..
D300
200-400 vr @ 400mm
iso-800
f11
1/500
tripod
20%crop

[Don Lacy]

Hi Paul, The book you want is Dragonflies Through Binoculars (A Field Guide To Dragonflies Of North America) by Sidney W. Dunkle. Even with a guide it can be hard to ID these guys but this looks like a Mantled Baskettail I am basing the ID on the size of the spots on the hind wings extending to the base of the wing on the Common they are not as large.

[denise ippolito]

Paul, This is a very nice image I like the BG, You've got nice details on your dragonfly. Well done.

[Mike Milicia]

FYI, I find this site to be very helpful with getting insect IDs :

http://bugguide.net/node/view/6/bgimage

Each time I have posted a request, I've gotten prompt and accurate answers.

[Stephen Stephen]

Hi Paul. I'm almost positive that you've got a female Widowskimmer. I've got images of this dragonfly too but here's a link from "BugGuide.net" with almost identical photos. It's free to join the site and people are very helpful with identifications.

http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=sear...&search=Search

Stephen

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks all for comments, Stephen I think you nailed it..bought the above suggested book through Chapters...(Dragonflies Through Binoculars (A Field Guide To Dragonflies Of North America)).
Paul