The present range of Hine’s Emerald (HEs) is limited to specialized habitats in Michigan, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin, but historically the species also flew in Indiana and Ohio. The UWM Field Station sits roughly midway between the northern Illinois and Door County, WI populations. HEs continue to show up near the Bog, sometimes, regrettably, as road kills. They are listed as a Federally Endangered species.

The word Dragonfly is probably taken equally from mythical dragons and from the Greek dragon, drakos—the dragon of fly, which had a “terrible eye” (Dragonflies seem to be all compound eye.) Both immature and adult dragonflies are voracious carnivores. Nymphs spend their allotted days, scarfing down anything that’s smaller and slower-moving than they are; they’ll even take tadpoles and fish.

The three dragonflies included here, Eastern/Common Pondhawks, Eastern Amberwing, and Chalk-fronted Corporals, are all in the Skimmer family, Libellulidae. Despite the fact that the young are aquatic and the adults are not, and the young (naiads) look different than the adults, they are considered to have simple or incomplete metamorphosis.