Odonates. Some thoughts.
I went to a talk at my not-exactly-local state park regarding odonates. The speaker was enthusiastic and informative and really enjoyed the subject, but also pitched odonatacentral.org, the which was pitched so enthusiastically that I went over and signed up for an account. Odonatacentral is a lot like iNat only just for odonates and they have approved vetters instead of citizen vetters. But, same deal pretty much. One of the nice things they do is offer county checklists for you so that you can go and find the stuff that is supposed to be in your county.
Guess what?
The county level checklists, generated from Actual County Observation Records, suck. They're slightly better if you live in a county with a major land-grant university (Centre County, PA, home of Penn State, comes to mind), a flashy and substantial water feature (Raystown Lake, Huntington County, PA, I am looking directly at you), or a couple of state parks. But if you live in plain old Greater Rednecklandia, the county records for your county probably suck and the more Greater Rednecklandia you are, the worse the records are likely to be. Therefore, the procedurally generated county level checklists... also likely to suck.
They're better than nothing, but they are not as good as they COULD be. I was thinking about this because when I started playing OC, the species checklist for my county (Fulton County, PA) had 53 species on it. In about a month of effort, I added six species to the checklist (by verified photographic records) that had absolutely no other records in the county. I am a rank amateur doing this in my spare time with a home-made net on a relatively uninspired third-growth wooded tract of about five hundred acres equipped with several streams, some swampy bits, and a fairly shallow 40-acre human-built impoundment from the 1960's. When your county checklist of odonate species is off by 10%, it is not a good list.
So blah blah, my county list is not particularly great. Could there be a better county list? Certainly. How might one be generated?
Well, odonates fly. They're mobile. And while the records for my county are crappy, there are four counties (more or less) that abut my county: Bedford, Huntington, Franklin (in PA) and Washington (in MD). Those counties have checklists as well, and they may be more informed than my county checklist. Also there might be stuff on their checklists that is not on my checklist. What I really want is a checklist of stuff that I might be able to find, ranked according to the odds of me finding it.
It is not enough to go through life wanting things, so I made the thing I wanted. Here's how:
- Identify the counties that abut your target county. This is easiest to do with their map, which has county names on it.
- Pull the species checklists for your target county and all adjoining counties. I used cut-n-paste-as-flat-text so that I'd get just words and not links or other stuff.
- Employ some shell scripting to massage the data into a better format. I am a crappy shell scripter, so probably real programmers can do this better than I did. I used google and did one step at a time because I suck.
cat fivecounties.txt | xargs -n3 -d’\n’ > test1.txt
This takes the text file "fivecounties.txt" and removes newlines so that there are no blank lines.
sort test1.txt > test2.txt
This groups like entries together so that all the "Anax junius Common Green Darner" entries are together.
cat test2.txt | uniq -c > test3.txt
This counts the # of entries for each species.
cat test3.txt | grep ‘5’ | sed -e s/[[:space:]]5[[:space:]]//g > 5counts.txt
This looks for the entries that occurred 5 times (in all counties) and outputs that list. I repeated this for the things in 4 counties, in 3 counties, etc...1>
So at the end, I got a list ordered from "Most Common, Found In Target County And All Surrounding Counties" to "Only One Record, Possibly Itinerant Or Mistaken Identity". And THIS list... this is a checklist I can get behind. It's a lot more informative. It's a lot more useful. (Here is not OdonataCentral but there they do not have a blog/journal feature.)
The new, improved, better Fulton County PA Odonate Species Checklist, with ones I have located bolded for convenience:
ALL FIVE COUNTIES:
Anax junius Common Green Darner
Argia fumipennis Variable Dancer
Arigomphus villosipes Unicorn Clubtail
Calopteryx maculata Ebony Jewelwing
Celithemis elisa Calico Pennant
Dromogomphus spinosus Black-shouldered Spinyleg
Enallagma aspersum Azure Bluet
Enallagma civile Familiar Bluet
Enallagma signatum Orange Bluet
Epitheca cynosura Common Baskettail
Epitheca princeps Prince Baskettail
Erythemis simplicicollis Eastern Pondhawk
Hagenius brevistylus Dragonhunter
Ischnura posita Fragile Forktail
Ischnura verticalis Eastern Forktail
Libellula cyanea Spangled Skimmer
Libellula incesta Slaty Skimmer
Libellula luctuosa Widow Skimmer
Libellula pulchella Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Macromia illinoiensis Swift River Cruiser
Pachydiplax longipennis Blue Dasher
Perithemis tenera Eastern Amberwing
Phanogomphus lividus Ashy Clubtail
Plathemis lydia Common Whitetail
Sympetrum rubicundulum Ruby Meadowhawk
Sympetrum semicinctum Band-winged Meadowhawk
Sympetrum vicinum Autumn Meadowhawk
FOUR COUNTIES:
Aeshna umbrosa Shadow Darner
Argia apicalis Blue-fronted Dancer
Argia sedula Blue-ringed Dancer
Argia translata Dusky Dancer
Basiaeschna janata Springtime Darner
Boyeria vinosa Fawn Darner
Calopteryx angustipennis Appalachian Jewelwing
Chromagrion conditum Aurora Damsel
Didymops transversa Stream Cruiser
Enallagma basidens Double-striped Bluet
Enallagma divagans Turquoise Bluet
Enallagma exsulans Stream Bluet
Enallagma geminatum Skimming Bluet
Enallagma hageni Hagen’s Bluet
Epiaeschna heros Swamp Darner
Hetaerina americana American Rubyspot
Lestes rectangularis Slender Spreadwing
Leucorrhinia intacta Dot-tailed Whiteface
Libellula semifasciata Painted Skimmer
Phanogomphus exilis Lancet Clubtail
THREE COUNTIES:
Aeshna tuberculifera Black-tipped Darner
Aeshna verticalis Green-striped Darner
Argia moesta Powdered Dancer
Boyeria grafiana Ocellated Darner
Cordulegaster maculata Twin-spotted Spiketail
Cordulegaster obliqua Arrowhead Spiketail
Enallagma traviatum Slender Bluet
Enallagma vesperum Vesper Bluet
Helocordulia uhleri Uhler’s Sundragon
Ladona julia Chalk-fronted Corporal
Lestes vigilax Swamp Spreadwing
Pantala flavescens Wandering Glider
Somatochlora tenebrosa Clamp-tipped Emerald
Stylogomphus albistylus Eastern Least Clubtail
Tramea carolina Carolina Saddlebags
Tramea lacerata Black Saddlebags
TWO COUNTIES:
Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner
Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner
Amphiagrion saucium Eastern Red Damsel
Celithemis eponina Halloween Pennant
Cordulegaster bilineata Brown Spiketail
Cordulia shurtleffii American Emerald
Enallagma antennatum Rainbow Bluet
Epitheca canis Beaverpond Baskettail
Gomphaeschna furcillata Harlequin Darner
Gomphurus fraternus Midland Clubtail
Gomphurus vastus Cobra Clubtail
Hylogomphus abbreviatus Spine-crowned Clubtail
Ischnura hastata Citrine Forktail
Ladona deplanata Blue Corporal
Lanthus vernalis Southern Pygmy Clubtail
Lestes congener Spotted Spreadwing
Lestes dryas Emerald Spreadwing
Lestes forcipatus Sweetflag Spreadwing
Lestes inaequalis Elegant Spreadwing
Libellula axilena Bar-winged Skimmer
Libellula vibrans Great Blue Skimmer
Macromia alleghaniensis Allegheny River Cruiser
Nehalennia irene Sedge Sprite
Neurocordulia obsoleta Umber Shadowdragon
Ophiogomphus rupinsulensis Rusty Snaketail
Pantala hymenaea Spot-winged Glider
Phanogomphus spicatus Dusky Clubtail
Rhionaeschna mutata Spatterdock Darner
Somatochlora linearis Mocha Emerald
Stenogomphurus rogersi Sable Clubtail
Sympetrum obtrusum White-faced Meadowhawk
Tachopteryx thoreyi Gray Petaltail
ONE COUNTY:
Anax longipes Comet Darner
Archilestes grandis Great Spreadwing
Argia tibialis Blue-tipped Dancer
Calopteryx amata Superb Jewelwing
Cordulegaster diastatops Delta-spotted Spiketail
Cordulegaster erronea Tiger Spiketail
Dorocordulia libera Racket-tailed Emerald
Enallagma anna River Bluet
Enallagma annexum Northern Bluet
Enallagma carunculatum Tule Bluet
Enallagma ebrium Marsh Bluet
Gomphurus lineatifrons Splendid Clubtail
Hetaerina titia Smoky Rubyspot
Hylogomphus viridifrons Green-faced Clubtail
Ischnura kellicotti Lilypad Forktail
Lanthus parvulus Northern Pygmy Clubtail
Lestes australis Southern Spreadwing
Lestes disjunctus Northern Spreadwing
Lestes eurinus Amber-winged Spreadwing
Lestes unguiculatus Lyre-tipped Spreadwing
Leucorrhinia frigida Frosted Whiteface
Leucorrhinia hudsonica Hudsonian Whiteface
Leucorrhinia proxima Belted Whiteface
Libellula auripennis Golden-winged Skimmer
Libellula flavida Yellow-sided Skimmer
Libellula quadrimaculata Four-spotted Skimmer
Nasiaeschna pentacantha Cyrano Darner
Nehalennia gracilis Sphagnum Sprite
Neurocordulia yamaskanensis Stygian Shadowdragon
Ophiogomphus carolus Riffle Snaketail
Ophiogomphus mainensis Maine Snaketail
Phanogomphus borealis Beaverpond Clubtail
Phanogomphus descriptus Harpoon Clubtail
Phanogomphus quadricolor Rapids Clubtail
Somatochlora elongata Ski-tipped Emerald
Somatochlora walshii Brush-tipped Emerald
Stylurus laurae Laura’s Clubtail
Stylurus spiniceps Arrow Clubtail
Sympetrum internum Cherry-faced Meadowhawk
That's 134 species. That's a way better list of things that are likely to be found in my area. However, look closely at that last batch, the "only one record" batch. See the Lilypad Forktail? That's my record. So... it can happen. McElligot's Pool, ya'll.
So... remember I said the county records sucked? They do. It's not the fault of OC.org, they're doing the best they can. However, science needs more boots on the ground. If nobody is out there looking for them, the odonates go unobserved. Get outside. Be a boot on the ground for science!
