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whichchick · 6 years

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A while ago, I posted the list of odonates I *should* find in my county. It’s here, if you want to go look at it, but I’m thinking it’s an unambitious list because it had like six things missing from it when I first looked at it. If a comprehensive list is missing ten percent of the things (was missing 6 but had 53), then it is not a very good list. The list is now 59 because I am over here improving the scientific record with proof. (Pix or it didn’t happen!)

Thing is, the odonatacentral.org county level checklists, generated from Actual County Observation Records, suck. They're better if you live in a county with a major land-grant university (Centre County, PA, home of Penn State, comes to mind), a flashy and substantial water feature (Raystown Lake, Huntington County, PA, I am looking directly at you), or a couple of state parks. But if you live in plain old Greater Rednecklandia, the county records for your county probably suck and the more Greater Rednecklandia you are, the worse the records are likely to be. As a consequence of the paucity of the scholarly record, the procedurally generated county level checklists from over at OC... suck. (Science needs more boots on the ground, is the real problem.)

The OC county checklists are better than nothing, but they are not as good as they COULD be. So wah wah, my county list from OC is not particularly great because whiny amateur me half-assedly proved it wrong in a month or so. Could there be a better county list? Certainly!

I want a better county list because observers see, a lot of the time, only the things that we are looking for. (That video with the gorilla suit person amongst the basketball players comes to mind) Basically, an insufficient checklist might lead someone to not look for or recognize stuff that could totally be out there. Totally. Like in McElligot’s Pool.

So, the current science-y records over at OC for my county (Fulton County, PA) are shittastic and I whine a lot. Fulton County is a rural county with very few people (less than 20K residents). It lacks universities, fancy water features, or any other reasons for the presence of a gung-ho odonate observation force. The records for my abutting counties (Bedford, Huntington, Franklin in PA, Washington in MD) are fuller. I feel like the records for “possibly available in Fulton County” would be more informed if I included in the “possibles” list all the stuff found in neighboring counties. Odonates do fly, after all, and if my own county is poorly surveyed, maybe... maybe I should be looking for more things than are on the official list.

So, I’ve gone and done that -- pulled the species checklists for the above listed counties from odonatacentral, thrown them into a text file, and pushed them through assorted linux command-line script filters to generate some information that might be useful to me in terms of What To Look For and How Likely Finding Them Might Be.

Methodology: Pull the county checklists off of odonatacentral, paste into a flat text file on the dumbest text editor you can find, using “paste as plain text”. You’ll get entries that look like this:

Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner

Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner

(etc)

These need to be cleaned up and made all one line, which I did with shell scripting. I am THE WORLD’S SHITTIEST SHELL SCRIPTER, just putting that out there right now. I do not shell script for a living any more than I chase the odonates around for a living.

Here’s what I did:

cat fivecounties.txt | xargs -n3 -d'\n' > test1.txt

(In english: read file fivecounties.txt, which is the plaintext paste file of all the county checklists, go through and take out the newline character three times (one for after scientific name, one for after common name, one for blank line), throw the result in new file called test1.txt)

Your output should look like this:

Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner

(One line per species, no blank lines)

Next, I sorted the file:

sort test1.txt > test2.txt

Output should look like this:

Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner Aeshna tuberculifera Black-tipped Darner Aeshna tuberculifera Black-tipped Darner...

(All like kinds grouped together and this is not a big enough text file for it to matter what mechanism linux uses for sorting. Does Not Matter.)

Then I did

cat test2.txt | uniq -c > test3.txt

for an output like this...

2 Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner 2 Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner 3 Aeshna tuberculifera Black-tipped Darner

Finally, I picked out the ones I wanted (by number) and formatted them for easy pasting in tumblr, an effort which took about eight tries and a lot of google because I freaking SUCK at sed. sed hates me. I did each iteration (1 through 5) seperately because I am no coder.

cat test3.txt | grep '5' | sed -e s/[[:space:]]*5[[:space:]]*//g > 5counts.txt

for an output of:

Anax junius Common Green Darner Argia fumipennis Variable Dancer Arigomphus villosipes Unicorn Clubtail...

So what did we get?

STUFF IN ALL FIVE COUNTIES (my county of Fulton plus the ones around it: Bedford, Huntington, Franklin in PA and Washington in MD), ones I do not have a verified photo record of are bolded:

Anax junius Common Green Darner (I can’t catch them. We have ‘em.) Argia fumipennis Variable Dancer Arigomphus villosipes Unicorn Clubtail Calopteryx maculata Ebony Jewelwing Celithemis elisa Calico Pennant Dromogomphus spinosus Black-shouldered Spinyleg Enallagma aspersum Azure Bluet Enallagma civile Familiar Bluet Enallagma signatum Orange Bluet Epitheca cynosura Common Baskettail Epitheca princeps Prince Baskettail Erythemis simplicicollis Eastern Pondhawk Hagenius brevistylus Dragonhunter Ischnura posita Fragile Forktail Ischnura verticalis Eastern Forktail Libellula cyanea Spangled Skimmer Libellula incesta Slaty Skimmer Libellula luctuosa Widow Skimmer Libellula pulchella Twelve-spotted Skimmer Macromia illinoiensis Swift River Cruiser Pachydiplax longipennis Blue Dasher Perithemis tenera Eastern Amberwing Phanogomphus lividus Ashy Clubtail Plathemis lydia Common Whitetail Sympetrum rubicundulum Ruby Meadowhawk Sympetrum semicinctum Band-winged Meadowhawk Sympetrum vicinum Autumn Meadowhawk

These All-Five-Counties odonates are the guys I should be able to find in my county. The official list says they’re here and they are also in all the bordering counties. I should make more of an effort on these because they’re probably here.

Next, I have four-out-of-five. These are likely but not 100%. Bolded the ones I do not have and probably I should read up for better stalking of these jobbies. Lurking in the usual hangouts, etc.

Aeshna umbrosa Shadow Darner Argia apicalis Blue-fronted Dancer Argia sedula Blue-ringed Dancer Argia translata Dusky Dancer Basiaeschna janata Springtime Darner Boyeria vinosa Fawn Darner Calopteryx angustipennis Appalachian Jewelwing Chromagrion conditum Aurora Damsel Didymops transversa Stream Cruiser Enallagma basidens Double-striped Bluet Enallagma divagans Turquoise Bluet Enallagma exsulans Stream Bluet Enallagma geminatum Skimming Bluet Enallagma hageni Hagen's Bluet Epiaeschna heros Swamp Darner Hetaerina americana American Rubyspot Lestes rectangularis Slender Spreadwing Leucorrhinia intacta Dot-tailed Whiteface Libellula semifasciata Painted Skimmer Phanogomphus exilis Lancet Clubtail

And three out of five. Maybes but worth looking at if I have the appropriate habitat. Need to up my darner game. I’ve bolded what I don’t have.

Aeshna tuberculifera Black-tipped Darner Aeshna verticalis Green-striped Darner Argia moesta Powdered Dancer Boyeria grafiana Ocellated Darner Cordulegaster maculata Twin-spotted Spiketail Cordulegaster obliqua Arrowhead Spiketail Enallagma traviatum Slender Bluet Enallagma vesperum Vesper Bluet Helocordulia uhleri Uhler's Sundragon Ladona julia Chalk-fronted Corporal Lestes vigilax Swamp Spreadwing Pantala flavescens Wandering Glider Somatochlora tenebrosa Clamp-tipped Emerald Stylogomphus albistylus Eastern Least Clubtail Tramea carolina Carolina Saddlebags Tramea lacerata Black Saddlebags

Two out of five. Here we’re going to bold and italicize what I do have. I don’t have most of these.

Aeshna canadensis Canada Darner Aeshna constricta Lance-tipped Darner Amphiagrion saucium Eastern Red Damsel Celithemis eponina Halloween Pennant Cordulegaster bilineata Brown Spiketail Cordulia shurtleffii American Emerald Enallagma antennatum Rainbow Bluet Epitheca canis Beaverpond Baskettail Gomphaeschna furcillata Harlequin Darner Gomphurus fraternus Midland Clubtail Gomphurus vastus Cobra Clubtail Hylogomphus abbreviatus Spine-crowned Clubtail Ischnura hastata Citrine Forktail Ladona deplanata Blue Corporal Lanthus vernalis Southern Pygmy Clubtail Lestes congener Spotted Spreadwing Lestes dryas Emerald Spreadwing Lestes forcipatus Sweetflag Spreadwing Lestes inaequalis Elegant Spreadwing Libellula axilena Bar-winged Skimmer Libellula vibrans Great Blue Skimmer Macromia alleghaniensis Allegheny River Cruiser Nehalennia irene Sedge Sprite Neurocordulia obsoleta Umber Shadowdragon Ophiogomphus rupinsulensis Rusty Snaketail Pantala hymenaea Spot-winged Glider Phanogomphus spicatus Dusky Clubtail Rhionaeschna mutata Spatterdock Darner Somatochlora linearis Mocha Emerald Stenogomphurus rogersi Sable Clubtail Sympetrum obtrusum White-faced Meadowhawk Tachopteryx thoreyi Gray Petaltail

1 of 5 -- I figure this stuff is longshots but do note that the lilypad forktail, bolded and italicized below, the ONE record in the five county area -- that’s my record. I found that. That was me. So possibly...

Anax longipes Comet Darner Archilestes grandis Great Spreadwing Argia tibialis Blue-tipped Dancer Calopteryx amata Superb Jewelwing Cordulegaster diastatops Delta-spotted Spiketail Cordulegaster erronea Tiger Spiketail Dorocordulia libera Racket-tailed Emerald Enallagma anna River Bluet Enallagma annexum Northern Bluet Enallagma carunculatum Tule Bluet Enallagma ebrium Marsh Bluet Gomphurus lineatifrons Splendid Clubtail Hetaerina titia Smoky Rubyspot Hylogomphus viridifrons Green-faced Clubtail Ischnura kellicotti Lilypad Forktail Lanthus parvulus Northern Pygmy Clubtail Lestes australis Southern Spreadwing Lestes disjunctus Northern Spreadwing Lestes eurinus Amber-winged Spreadwing Lestes unguiculatus Lyre-tipped Spreadwing Leucorrhinia frigida Frosted Whiteface Leucorrhinia hudsonica Hudsonian Whiteface Leucorrhinia proxima Belted Whiteface Libellula auripennis Golden-winged Skimmer Libellula flavida Yellow-sided Skimmer Libellula quadrimaculata Four-spotted Skimmer Nasiaeschna pentacantha Cyrano Darner Nehalennia gracilis Sphagnum Sprite Neurocordulia yamaskanensis Stygian Shadowdragon Ophiogomphus carolus Riffle Snaketail Ophiogomphus mainensis Maine Snaketail Phanogomphus borealis Beaverpond Clubtail Phanogomphus descriptus Harpoon Clubtail Phanogomphus quadricolor Rapids Clubtail Somatochlora elongata Ski-tipped Emerald Somatochlora walshii Brush-tipped Emerald Stylurus laurae Laura's Clubtail Stylurus spiniceps Arrow Clubtail Sympetrum internum Cherry-faced Meadowhawk

Anyway. That’s how I buffed up my “things to look for in my area and how reasonable they are for me to be looking for them” list for dragonflies. Seems legit to me, anyway.

#odonata #checklists #mcelligot's pool #what I might find

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