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3. Help identify this...dragonfly?

No idea about this guy, not necessarily important to trout but I knew someone here can probably nail it or at least point me in the right direction. It's the first time I've seen these type of antennae on a dragonfly type insect.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Fallen513,

It's an Antlion (Myrmeleontidae), possibly Myrmeleon.

Thanks so much Gonzo! You're amazing! :)

-Seth

awesome photo, seth

Yep, definitely not a member of the order Odonata - their antennae are so short you have to look for them with a magnifying glass at minimum (pretty hard to do when they're on the wing...). Most definitely an antlion as Gonzo says. You don't see the adults very often, unless perhaps you're an entomologist who stays up late at night staring at white sheets hung beneath blacklights (I admit I have indeed done this...).

However, their larvae can often be spotted in sandy areas as little dimples in the soil. This is where they get their name - those are pitfall traps for hapless, unsuspecting ants who tumble in to their deaths at the curved, sickle-shaped jaws of their killers. You can see this in action by dropping in your own hapless ants...This is the stuff of which SOOOOOO many science fiction horror films are dreamed up, as in just imagine if they got to be three feet long. Then again, I suppose we would learn to avoid funny funnel-shaped dimples in the sand, although doubtless a few hapless children or pets might fall in...Yep, good thing they are so small...

Jonathon

P.S. This critter belongs to the order Neuroptera, home of such other amazing creatures as the mantisfly, snakefly, and owlfly...and also lacewings and even one who's larvae feed on freshwater sponges!

A truly amazing picture! I feel the same way about the answer. Great educational material...thanks to all!

Brought me to think of something I saw on a commercially tied flies page. Rainy Flies Co. has a dry damsel that has perpendicular wings to the body. I have had some fun, and productive days fishing dry damsels on lakes, but have tied the wings parallel to the body, and assumed the difference in the position of the wings between a damsel, and the perpendicular wings of a dragon fly. Do damsels end up spent on the water with their wings in a perpendicular position by chance? And because of the notion the wings are parallel to the body on a damsel, I do not even include wings on some patterns.