| The Cream-tipped Swampdamsel (Leptobasis melinogaster) was new for North America only a few years ago. In fact, this species was newly described to science as recently as the 1990s. It is a slowly flying damsel of wet swampy and shady areas in the tropics and has been found at a handful of locations in far south Texas. In September, 2008, I was in Santa Ana N.W.R., Hidalgo Co., Texas with Dennis Paulson, when Tom Pendleton and Dave and Jan Dauphin called my attention to a male swampdamsel they had found. I was able to get a few shots of this male, the first of the species I had seen. This is an inconspicuous damselfly which can be very hard to find. The first 5 shots were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and EF 300mm F/4 L IS lens and 2X extender and flash. |
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| The next 9 images show teneral male and female Cream-tipped Swampdamsels at Santa Ana N.W.R., Hidalgo Co., Texas, in late May, 2009. These images were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and an EF 300mm F/4 l IS lens and 2X extender and 580 flash. The image shown here shows a young male as do the next 2 shots at right. |
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| The next 2 shots show a young male. |
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| A young female is in the next 2 shots. |
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| The shot here shows an orange form female Rambur's Forktail eating a teneral female Cream-tipped Swampdamsel. The Rambur's has already devoured the head and front part of the thorax of the swampdamsel. |
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| The next 3 shots show teneral female Cream-tipped Swampdamsels. |
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| The young male swampdamsel on the right and the two shots of a mature female just following were at Santa Ana N.W.R., Hidalgo Co., Texas, in June, 2009. These shots were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark III and EF 300mm F/4 l IS lens and 2X extender and 580 flash. |
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