Gilded
River Cruiser Macromia pacifica
This Macromia was photographed in late June 2002,
along a stretch of a wooded slow creek in Western Tarrant County
(just west of Fort Worth), Texas. It was striking in
appearance and behavior: the yellow on the abdomen and frons was
thick and eye-catching, and it flew very low over the water
repeatedly patrolling a beat of just 30 yards for about five
minutes before disappearing upstream; I feel it must be M.
pacifica - but in the photos, it looks like there is no
frontal yellow stripe on the thorax...? update:- Sid Dunkle
has commented that this is likely a *pacifica* with the front
legs drawn up to obscure the yellow frontal stripe:
This crop shows the strong yellow on the frons:
It is possible that motion blur might be exaggerating the extent
of the yellow markings; this is a version that has been darkened,
effectively shrinking the yellow parts
