East Tennessee’s Endemic Dragon

Male Cherokee Clubtail (Stenogomphus consanguis), eating a Cerambycid beetle

Alright, brace yourselves friends; through the lens of cyberspace, here is a close look at an endangered species! This dragonfly is a Cherokee Clubtail (Gomphus consanguis), and it is probably without a doubt, one of my favorite Southern Appalachian dragonflies. Walking between almost an acre of western scouring-rush across the creek floodplain and a natural pawpaw (Asimina triloba) orchard, this neon-blue dragonfly managed to overpower a Cerambycid beetle mid-flight several feet ahead! Odonates are a group of insects I really need to play around with more; as these creatures are truly remarkable. Dragonflies are like nature’s miniature fighter jets, and this showy male was no different. Extremely insectivorous, they will eat amazingly large quantities of mosquitoes, flies and other pests, snatching them from the sky with a sublime, mesmerizing beauty. 

       

The Cherokee Clubtail (doesn’t that name sound like some kind of an East Tennessee version of a Harry Potter dragon?) begins life as a tiny egg. Odonates have a very unusual mating ritual, and after that is complete, the bright blue male will guard the dimorphic, brownish female from predators, parasitoids and other males while she lays her eggs. These dragonflies rely on pretty clean lowland rivers and large creeks to survive. They spend at least a year hatching and growing into an aquatic nymph. Nymphs are often coated in dirt, and have a drab coloration; looking nothing like an adult dragonfly. G. consanguis nymphs resemble tiny, weathered arrowheads on the creek bed.

        

Clubtail nymphs are generally triangular, flat, hairy, and experts at burying themselves barely under the surface of sediment at the bottom of their parents’ chosen water source. When buried, they remain motionless under the mud for aquatic worms and insects to swim by overhead. Then, a hungry nymph will launch its retractable “lip” into a long grasping claw, several times the length of its own head, to snatch the prey and slurp it back into the muddy abyss. Chewing the captured creature with vicious mandibles, the dragonfly nymph very seldom moves; as they rely on mainly on camouflage (with backup jet propulsion) to escape, as well as a hunting strategy based on ambush methodology. Sadly, the Cherokee Clubtail and many other dragonflies are threatened by habitat destruction. Even though all the locations that possess G. consanguis may not be known to science, we do know that this species is declining as a whole. And what a shame! 

Adult Cherokee Clubtails love to live in warm meadows around riparian forests, often the same places we keep cattle and grow hay and human food plants! Perfect pest control for the plants, cattle and people nearby! How much cooler and more effective is your own squadron of insect war-planes than puny old “OFF!” bug repellent or expensive vaccines for livestock afflicted by blood-sucking pests? Ironically, sedimentation is one of the biggest killers of clubtails; something so easily combatted. When houses are built and land is maintained, improper routes of runoff water can kill not only dragonflies but sport fish, rare salamanders and plenty of other aquatic animals that are very important to us and the environment. Buffers of trees, wildflowers and other wildlife habitat are designed to stop nasty, exposed soil from eroding into streams. In fact, Cherokee Clubtails can even withstand a great deal of mud, so sedimentation causes them to be among the first species entirely buried when a watershed is abused.

       

Nymphs and eggs are cemented under anthropogenically-dislodged sand and mud; if more sand and mud flows down the river and buries the young insects, the next generation is ruined. Luckily, your state likely has a program to protect rivers, and if you let them know what your project is, they’ll probably be willing to give you advice at least; and maybe even help construct riverside barrier forests, rain gardens and cattle ponds to protect your watersheds. Yet there's a lot of work to be done. So needless to say, I was excited to see this clubtail, and I hope one day many people can watch them tackle their prey and satisfy their monstrous, insectivorous appetites, without fear of the disappearance of the species (or any other, for that matter).