Wisconsin's Most Wanted List

NO, we are not talking about cows and cheese curds. We are talking about DRAGONFLIES!!!

Say what???

You heard me.

Apparently these dragonflies have MOOOOved from Wisconsin and now they are all the BUZZZZ at the Samuels' house. Here's the story:

Leave it to Whitley to try and nurse any animal back to health. You name it, we have had it here at our Wildlife Refuge..., I mean house. Yes, we have had bats, woodpeckers, saw whet owls, a fox with a broken leg, a salmander with an amputated tail, snakes that apparently weren't slitthering fast enough for my daughter's hands, mud puppies and the like.

Yesterday's featured rescue was a Dragonfly. Of course this not just any old dragonfly; this is the Aeshnidae, aka. "Darners".

Need a Biology translation in English?

No problem; I can help!

In short, we are dealing with a dragonfly. In a taxonomic classification system, the family in which this particular dragonfly belongs to is the Aeshnidae. The order is Odonata. The taxaniomic system simply lumps and splits things together. Basically, it states how plants and animals are alike...and how they are different.

This dragonfly is about 4 inches long. It is the largest dragonfly in the US!!!! It's body shape looks like a sewing needle as the abdomen thins directly below the thorax. Hence the common name "Darner", like a darning needle.

Other indicators are that their eyes touch at the top middle of their heads, their wings are clear with the exception of a small stigma (mark) on the tops side of the wing. Males are more blue and females are more blue green. This dragonfly is closely related to the "Libelluloide" aka the "Emerald". The only difference is the "Emerald" is, you guessed it, emerald green!

After doing some research, we confirmed with certainty that we have a "Darner". No, make that a sick and injured Darner.

The Darners flight patterns occur 20% in July, 40% in Aug., and 40% in Sept. We read that in Wisconsin, this Dragonfly has been placed on their "Most Wanted" list as the numbers and information about them have depleted in recent years.

How great! Our own little field zoologist/biologist, Whitley Samuels, was going to provide the State of Wisconsin with some much needed information about "Darner" and how we are now seeing them in the Wild West Rockies of Colorado. Oh happy day!

Until today, that is.....

The "Darner" has expired!!! Flatlined, croaked, keeled over, DEAD!!!

And so, today we led a funeral march to the beat of an old Folgers can with our beloved Darner, entombed in ZIPLOC container to our very own Pet Cemetary. The colorful Darner now joins the remains of a red headed woodpecker, a robin (both of which crashed into our 25 ft. window) and a hamster. (sniff sniff)

And so the Darner will continue to be on Wisconsin's Most wanted list, and off the list Whitley most wanted....., to rescue an animal from the wild.

However, all is not vain; she tried her best while adding some information to her zoological repetoire' to boot!