Dragonhunter Exuvia?
Location: Rangeley Lake, Rangeley, Maine USA
January 24, 2011 8:19 am
I found this exuvia on a dock at Rangeley Lake in Rangeley Maine USA. Does it belong to the Dragonhunter Dragonfly nymph? I look forward to solving this mystery. My husband was holding it in the palm of his hand when I took the picture. It was about two inches long. Can you tell us what kind of bug it is? Thank you. Thank you!
Signature: Cheryl Mitchell
Hi Cheryl,
Apparently you emailed your photos to at least one friend who submitted an identification request a day earlier and signed the request “Not sure”, beating you to both a response and a posting to our site. Since you submitted two images, and “Not sure” only submitted one photo, we can create a new posting and include your second image which provides a nice sense of scale. We gave a slightly snotty response during our response to “Not sure” due to the lack of relevant information that was provided. You are correct that this is a Dragonhunter exuvia. We did not realize that this was the exuvia, a name given to the cast off exoskeleton that remains when an insect molts during metamorphosis. Thank you for providing that clarification.
Thank you very much for your prompt response. Yes, please create a new posting to include both of the images I submitted of the Dragonhunter exuvia.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Mitchell
Ed. Note: August 10, 2014: This is a ventral view, and it can be compared to this image on BugGuide.