To any of you dragonfly lovers who want to add a really nice field
guide to your bookshelves, get a copy of the fairly newly published
book Dragonflies of the North Woods, by Kurt Mead published by
Kollath-Stensaas Publishing in Duluth MN. They are a fairly new, small
publishing company, and are doing some great books (they also have
Butterflies of the NOrth Woods and Spiders of the North Woods). The
geographic area they cover is upper midwest, but some of these critters
can be found all over, so it's a good reference to have. I have a copy
of Dragonflies Through Binoculars, and found Dragonflies of the North
Woods orders of magnitude more useful in the field for learning and
identifying dragonflies. I got so I could be canoeing along, and spot a
dragonfly and be able to narrow down pretty quickly what it might be.
And I'm no entomologist - just a field-sketching bug-lover.
Thanks for all the wonderful info and input to this list, which I have
only recently joined.
Consie Powell
On Friday, November 26, 2004, at 01:49 PM, JAM wrote:
> Hi Ingrid,
>
> I have been away feasting on turkey, but I see you
> have gotten great responses regarding preservation. I
> am in love with all nature, but am most deeply in love
> with dragonflies & raptors. So, naturally I study &
> draw them the most.
>
> As mentioned by others, for dragonflies, placing a
> live specimen into acetate is the best way to preserve
> them. One day while preserving a specimen for the
> nature center, I picked up a hand lens, and when I saw
> the expression on this poor dragonfly gasping it's
> last breath as I killed it, it freaked me out enough
> to decide to find other ways to educate the public w/o
> having to destroy living ones. I knew about cooling
> them, and since I had been working in digital imaging,
> I decided to combine the two concepts in order to then
> release my specimens. I was also trying to set a good
> example for my daughter regarding preservation &
> conservation.
>
> The results of scanning on even a cheap scanner were
> fantastic. Dragonflies are thermoregulated, so you can
> cool a dragonfly in the fridge for up to 3 days (I
> only do 2)in order to stun them long enough to scan or
> photograph, but do not put them in a freezer. I am
> also very aware of the species flight periods, and in
> the past if I REALLy needed a dragonfly to keep, I
> waited till the end of their cycle to collect them. I
> then cooled them (even though live is better),
> photographed them, and put them in acetate. And yes,
> as they warm after cooling you will get better color
> in the specimens. More recently though, I just search
> for dead specimens while out for walks. When I find
> dragonfly bodies or even parts while hiking, I grab
> them and toss them in a basket(I have a small basket
> of wings alone). I use these bodies/parts for my
> illustrations, then refer to my scans & photographs
> for color reference. A few months ago, using my
> "basket-of-dead-things" as I call it, I did an
> illustration of the Common Green Darner (Anax junius),
> which sounds like the dragonlfy you described. I then
> captured a live specimen, cooled it, studied the color
> as it warmed, the released it.
>
> To learn more I suggest the U.S. odonata guru Sidney
> Dunkle's book Dragonflies through Binoculars. A very
> good field guide for the U.S. California has a great
> field guide as well, can't recall the
> author/illustrator right now, very beautiful work
> though. There are other great books as well, but these
> are must-haves, and if you are truly intersted, you
> will find the other books as you study.
>
> Hope you continue with your interest in dragonflies,
> both in science & art!
>
> Jacki
>
>
> --- Ingrid Wolsk <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Jacki, for the wonderful description of
>> how you handled the
>> dragonfly on the scanner. I have a question. I like
>> dragon flies but know
>> little about them. About a year and a half ago while
>> on a visit to Seattle,
>> I found a beautiful one that had died on the
>> sidewalk. A very large,big
>> strong one. I had a small box in my bag and took it
>> home. I like drawing
>> them. this one had a most beautiful electric
>> blue/green body. I kept it in
>> the box from the light. Some months later when I
>> again looked at it to my
>> great dismay all the beautiful colour had faded to
>> an almost black. I did
>> not think this would happen. Have you any
>> information to offer on this
>> transformation. I have not been able to find
>> anything on this.
>> Thank you,
>> Ingrid Wolsk
>>
>>> From: JAM <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Reply-To: SciArt-L Discussion List-for Natural
>> Science Illustration-
>>> <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:53:34 -0800
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: Moth Art
>>>
>>> I once did a three year dragonfly study for a
>> nature
>>> center, but did not want to harm species in order
>> to
>>> display them. So, I cooled the dragonflies, when
>> they
>>> were cooled enough to stop moving, I placed them
>> on a
>>> cheap scanner, somtimes under a small box and
>>> sometimes even under just a white sheet of copy
>> paper,
>>> then scanned them. I then reIeased them back to
>> where
>>> I had captured them. I had stunning results.
>>>
>>> I placed the images in a Filemaker Pro database,
>> along
>>> with other misc. data regarding the dragonlfy. So,
>>> people could easily search by common name,
>> scientific
>>> name, region, flight periods, etc. It was very
>>> successful, so I handed all my records over to a
>>> person who makes very popular field guides. He was
>>> thrilled. I'm hoping he remembers me for the
>>> acknowledgements in the book, but I doubt it. I
>> guess
>>> I should've saved it all for my own field guide,
>> but I
>>> have since moved on from wetland studies to raptor
>>> rehab, wildlife care, prairie restoration, and
>>> botanical & scientific illustration. This past
>> summer
>>> I did some amazing (amazingly lucky) dragonfly
>>> photo's, so maybe one day I will combine my art,
>>> photo's & studies for my own field guide.
>>>
>>> Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
>>> Jacki Morrison
>>>
>>>>> There is a good article in today's New York
>> Times
>>>>> Science section entitled "The Face of Nature
>>>> Changes
>>>>> as Art and Science Evolve", about the high
>>>> resolution
>>>>> moth scans of by artist Joseph Scheer. He is
>>>>> exhibiting prints as part of the "Inspired by
>>>> Nature:
>>>>> the Art of the Natural History Book" conference
>> at
>>>> the
>>>>> Rhode Island School of Design.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/science/23natu.html?oref=regi
>>>>>
>>>>> He has some special scanning technology provided
>> to
>>>>> him by a European firm to demonstate its
>>>> capabilities.
>>>>> His original images are amazing to look at;
>>>>> micro-lepidoptera blown up large with every
>>>> colorful,
>>>>> clearly defined scale and hair forming a mosaic
>>>> that
>>>>> makes up the total moth image.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> There are high end flatbed scanners out there in
>>>> $19,000 -$40,000
>>>> range that allow for some depth of field to
>> capture
>>>> 3D objects. This
>>>> apprears to be what he is using.
>>>>
>>>> Britt
>>>> --
>>>> _______________________________________
>>>> Britt Griswold/WMAP Project
>>>> Infonetic/Maslow Media Group
>>>> NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
>>>> Code 685 Bldg. 21 Rm 063
>>>> Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001
>>>> (301) 286-3381
>>>> (301) 286-1617 FAX
>>>> (301) 286-7230 FAX
>>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>> http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov
>>>>
>>>
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