Image of Pale-faced Clubskimmer

Description:

"2 August 2015: Observed a female Pale-faced Clubskimmer perched hanging from a low branch on a small tree on the Bittern Marsh Trail with the Elm Fork Trinity River not more than 20-30 feet away. The river's bank at that point has eroded due to flooding that's occurred with May's historically unprecedented rain in the region and across Texas.This observation occurred at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) in Lewisville, Texas. The Pale-faced Clubskimmer is a North American dragonfly because its range occurs solely in the United States and Mexico. In the United States according to Odonata Central (online odonatapedia hosted by the University of Texas at Austin for North American dragons and damsels), the Pale-faced Clubskimmer is found in the Southwest and Plains states including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas and South Dakota. It tends to be significantly less abundant in the northern reaches of its range. Pale-faced Clubskimmer makes its presence in Mexico by way of its Pacific Coast states and its Northeast states. Dennis R. Paulson and Enrique González Soriano in their online Mexican Odonata distribution list for Mexico's odes (revised in June 2015; originally prepared in 1994), find that Pale-faced Clubskimmer occurs in seven states including (alphabetically) Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, and Tamaulipas. Paulson finds that this clubskimmer occurs generally from Kansas to Guerrero, as he put it in his ""A Checklist of North American Odonata,"" (2012 edition) which can be accessed online at: http://www.odonatacentral.org/docs/NA_Odonata_Checklist_2012.pdf Based on these online sources we conclude that the farthest northern and southern range for Pale-faced Clubskimmer occurs somewhere between the Great Plains states of South Dakota or Kansas and the southwestern state of Guerrero respectively in the US and Mexico. John C. Abbott in his Dragonflies of Texas: A Field Guide (University of Texas Press, 2015) notes that this dragonfly is common in Texas but is usually not present in large numbers. Abbott has it flying in Texas from March to December but its strongest time of the year is summer especially July and August. Pale-faced Clubskimmer is habitat sensitive and requires or prefers cobbled, sandy or rocky streams and rivers with wooded banks, which is precisely the kind of habitat offered to it at this LLELA location. Pale-faced Clubskimmer is an authentic North American dragonfly because its existing range occurs in Mexico and United States."