A scientist with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection recently spotted a rare dragonfly species in the Catskills on his way to perform some water quality sampling. It’s a species considered critically imperiled in New York.
Field ecologist Frank Beres found the Southern pygmy clubtail along a tributary that feeds the Rondout Reservoir, one of the DEP’s reservoirs in its drinking water supply system. After Beres spotted it, the rarely seen dragonfly hopped on his finger and allowed him to take several photos before flying off. The Southern pygmy clubtail can only survive and reproduce in the cleanest water, rendering the species a good indicator of water quality. In addition to his work for DEP, Beres is a naturalist who has photographed and documented thousands of macroinvertebrates, insects, birds and other animals.
