Update July 10, 2009: added recent photos of a mature adult female from a different location at Santa Ana NWR; at the bottom of the page:
Update June 20, 2009: more recent photos of adult and subadult males from the same location at the bottom of the page:
These Red-tipped Swampdamsels Leptobasis vacillans were at the entrance pond (but on the south end) at Santa Ana NWR, Hidalgo county, Texas on May 28 and 29, 2009:
1) the first female seen in the United States (c. 2pm):
2) another female with different abdomen pattern, two feet from the female above:
3) a mature female at c. 6.15pm:
4) a mature male seen moments after the female above:
5) The next morning I went back with Tom Pendleton and Jan and David Dauphin; the first one (a mature male) was found c. 9.20am:
6) while still enjoying the mature male above, a younger male appeared close by and the two interacted by curling their abdomen tips:
- eventually the mature individual took a dominant position above the younger male:
7) a couple of minutes later another mature male appeared:
8) soon followed by another mature female:
Update June 20, 2009: adult and subadult males from the same location at Santa Ana NWR on June 09, 2009:
Update July 10, 2009: a mature adult female from next to the overlook at Willow Pond #3 at Santa Ana NWR on July 01, 2009:
