Bog Life...

Whilst up at the cottage this last weekend I cycled over to one of my very favorite areas - a small bog along the nearby railways tracks. Actually, it is not technically a bog - more a "poor fen" due to the impoverished flora. It looks like a bog though with a dense mat of Sphagnum moss, masses of Pitcher Plants, Rose Pagonia and Sundews. A lovely area. It used to be a lot nicer but it has a brand new highway running along side it now, so, not as peaceful as it once was. Still, the richness of the area has not diminished. Below are a few creatures to be found dodging the carnivorous plants!


I guess I hit it about right for this diminuative dragon this year - there were hundreds of them in a very small area, never seen them so numerous. It is, of course, the lovely Elfin Skimmer. This one is a tiger-striped female. They really are very small, though somewhat chunky. They like to keep very low and are rarely more than a few inches off the Sphagnum mat.


A male Elfin Skimmer. The males, when very young, are a dark slaty-gray. As they mature they become rather pruinose and have, as here, a whitish bloom on the thorax and upper abdomen. They sit with their wings held well forward.


There are a few day-flying moths in boggy areas. This one is a geometrid called Itame sulphurea. As the name suggests it can be yellow, but this is a drab brownish individual. I was a bit early for many of the species so you have to make do with this one for now.


Bogs are often good for a group of pyralid micros in the Crambus family. This one is Chrysoteuchia topiaria. They are often called "grass moths" and all are rather small, pencil-shaped creatures, often with very nice metallic patterns on their fore-wings.


Though not strictly a bog species I thought I'd lump this one in here because I was quite excited to see it! It is a male Cyrano Darner. I spotted it patrolling the lake off the dock at the cottage. I knew what it was but thought I'd have a go at catching it anyway! I waded in to almost chest level and, amazingly, caught it first swipe.

It is a large darner with a stout abdomen and those lovely blue eyes. The feature which it named after is the grossly protruding frons in front of the eyes. A really super dragonfly which is not at all common in Ontario, though it is perhaps overlooked since it seems to enjoy being over open water rather than land.


Another view of the Cyrano Darner as it recovered after being netted and fondled a bit! It did fly off eventually I can assure you...