Five years, 100 volunteers and more than 18,000 records of dragonflies and damselflies went in to the completion of the New Hampshire Dragonfly Survey.

The survey shows exactly what a good long look can do for the understanding of species population levels and distribution. The NH Fish and Game press release says:

“The good news is that most of the rarer species turned out to be far more common than previously believed,” said Dr. Pamela Hunt, who coordinated the project for NH Audubon. “We even doubled the number of sites for the state’s only endangered dragonfly – the ringed boghaunter – from 8 to 15.” Particularly impressive was the increase in sites known to support the scarlet bluet, a small red damselfly that likes lily pads. “This species was unknown in the state until 2002, and at the start of the dragonfly survey there were only five sites,” says Hunt. “Now they’re known from over 40 sites.

 

Read the NH Fish and Game press release on the dragonfly survey here.
Read the 54-page dragonfly survey final report here. (PDF)

Photo: Paddle-tailed darner, not a NH dragonfly, but what a photo. Photo by Tom Kogut, courtesy of the US Forest Service