Image of Erpetogomphus eutainia Calvert 1905

Description:

Blue-faced Ringtail Erpetogomphus eutainia female Independence Park, Gonzales, Gonzales Co., Texas 22 July 2016 From 2003 through about 2010 this general area was a reliable place to find Erpetogomphus eutainia, which is a rare and local species that, within the U.S., is only known from 6 Texas counties. In 2011 and 2012 the species proved to be scarce here and the last one photographed here to my knowledge was the late summer of 2012. From 2012 through summer 2015 I, and many others, made numerous unsuccessful trips to Gonzales to look for this species. My friend, Jerry Hatfield, from Lubbock, and I met up this morning to try yet again to see if we could find this species, and we had a bit of luck with a single female. We both obtained numerous images of this one individual. I was really happy to find this species at this location again and I hope it will become more numerous between now and early October which is its normal late summer flight season. I should stress we only saw this one individual despite a lot of looking, so I have no idea whether others will have any luck, but I hope so. If you are interested in searching iNat records of this species you will find more images of males and females from me, @ericisley, and @dianaterryhibbitts.