Tropical Odes

Odonates seen on my travels South

I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled south to some great places to see some of the more exotic tropical dragonflies and damselflies our hemisphere has to offer. I’ve been to Florida once (2014) and Las Vegas twice (2017 and 2020); Mexico once (2016); the Dominican Republic once (2019) and Costa Rica twice (2017 and 2023). As these were vacations with my spouse, and guided excursions focused on birds rather than insects, I did not tally large lists of odes in any other country.

TOTAL: 23 Species

Species shown above: Variegated Meadowhawk (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA); Highland Rubyspot (Bijagua, Alajuela, Costa Rica); Tawny Pennant (Punta Cana, Dominican Republic); Black Pondhawk (Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico)

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1. After my blog post about the dragonflies I saw in the Dominican Republic was published, an entomologist from Spain (Dr. Joaquín Márquez-Rodríguez) contacted me regarding the specific location of the dragonflies I photographed, and asked for permission to use some of the images for the scientific paper he was writing. I gave him permission (I am usually happy to allow people to use my images for scientific or educational purposes, so long as permission is asked) and further details about my sightings.  His paper entitled “New records of Odonata from La Altagracia, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic” was later published on ResearchGate.net and reports six new dragonfly species in the province of La Altagracia, Dominic Republic – including the Tawny Pennant (Brachymesia herbida) and Spot-tailed Dasher (Micrathyria aequalis) that I photographed on the resort.  Apparently the eastern half of the Dominican Republic is not well surveyed for odes, despite the number of tourists who visit.  The six new species reported in Dr. Márquez-Rodríguez’s paper bring the total number of odonata found in La Altagracia up to 15, so I guess I didn’t do too badly with the only four species I did find! ↩︎