Chalk-fronted Corporal

There's a group of dragonflies known as corporals that take to the air early in the season and are among the odes that I'm always looking for in May. One, called the Blue Corporal, is probably highest on my list, since I've been asked by University of Connecticut entomologist David Wagner to monitor a population of the State-listed insect that lives in the area around Lantern Hill. I have yet to find Ladona deplanata there this year, but on a trip today to White Flower Farm to pick up plants, we also stopped at the White Memorial conservation area to hike some of their trails. By a promising wetland, I noticed an odd-looking Ladona that, at first glance, I figured was an L. deplanata in the process of becoming an adult. Not so, I learned when I got home and took a closer look at the photo and the guide books. This one's a different species—a member of the Chalk-fronted Corporal clan—and a happy discovery, since L. julia was not in my odonate photo database. Properly labeled, it is now.