Dot-tailed Whitefaces return to Sunset Pond in June

Dot-tailed Whitefaces (Leucorrhinia hudsonica) emerged at Sunset Pond on June 20—small dragonflies marked by a single yellow spot at the tail tip of the males, now winging across the emergent vegetation. These odonate are meticulous about their habitat: they breed only in clean, still wetlands with adequate dissolved oxygen and dense emergent growth. Their arrival carries ecological weight, because the seasonal window tightens fast. By mid-July, shallow ponds like this one face peak thermal and oxygen stress, as warm water becomes hostile to aquatic larvae and decomposition loads spike. The Dot-tailed Whiteface is sensitive enough to that shift that their successful emergence reads as a reliable water-quality pass for early summer.

In the Fraser Lowland, this species is tethered to sphagnum-edged pond habitat that was far more abundant before agricultural drainage remade the coastal flats over the past century. Seeing them here alongside Cardinal Meadowhawks and Pacific Forktails—with seven dragonfly and damselfly species recorded across the lowlands over the past sixty days—suggests that enough of those wetland remnants remain intact to sustain a full emergence season. The resilience is real, but fragile.