I was walking slowly around Ball Field Little seep (see "
Midway Map" in the top menu bar.) My attention was caught by morning light reflecting off something. It was ahead of me, near the seep's shoreline. At first I thought it was more plastic marine debris, which shows up everywhere on Midway. It looked like a piece of cellophane. (In the lower left corner of this first picture you'll see what I saw!)
I got closer and looked through my binoculars. Wow! It was a dragonfly! And the sunlight wasn't reflecting off junk; it was sparkling off the dragonfly's four clear wings!! I was looking at the indigenous Green Darner dragonfly, pinao in Hawaiian,
Anax junius. Here it was, out in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, in a seep, in Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge!
The dragonfly seemed to be struggling in the grass. "Oh dear," I thought. "The insect is caught. I'll use a small stick to help it escape."
But as I looked closer I realized the little guy wasn't in need of my help. It had just come out of its old skin (which is to the left of the insect's head in the second picture.) The dragonfly had metamorphosed from being a nymph to now being a full-grown adult. It was just taking time to pump up its new body and wings. You can see in the picture that the left wings are still a little folded, and definitely need some more fluid pumped into them. During the nymph stage of a
dragonfly's life cycle it lives underwater; in fact, it is a big, tough predator among pond life. As an adult, the dragonfly will be a predator above the pond. Go, go, go; get those flies!
There are almost 500 creepy crawlies -- insects, spiders, centipedes, and things like that -- on Midway. Some of them are native, but this one is not. This large, shiny, green, non-native beetle is really common right now. It's called the Midway Emerald Beetle, Protaetia pryeri (no Hawaiian name, because it's not native! It was probably accidentally introduced from China.) The Beetle has been attacking red hibiscus flowers near my house.
If it does this to flowers, wouldn't it be awful if the Midway Emerald Beetle got to the main Hawaiian Islands? It would attack papaya, mangoes and other crops! When I go home to O`ahu, I'll check my baggage carefully!
