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“Males are more often associated with water. They’re territorial, and want
to keep a spot open for the females to fly in. But if I’m specifically looking for
females, I tend to move away from water and crash through the brush and veg-
etation to see if any fly out.
“It takes a lot of practice to identify dragonflies on the wing, but identification
also takes a lot of patience. Sometimes it’s best to wait until the dragonfly lands
to look for certain marks or features.”
Despite decades of practice and patience, Smith still gets frustrated when
identifying dragonflies and damselflies.
“Some of the species near and dear to my heart are the ones I’ve spent the
most time searching for. I’ve visited a lot of forested seeps looking for the
Ouachita spiketail and have spent a lot of time looking for the first known nymph
of the Ozark emerald. For these species, there’s been a lot of effort made for
very little data because they are so cryptic.
“But that effort can be really rewarding. It can make you feel like a Williamson.
You’re learning about a species that nobody has information about. You’re
learning where they may be breeding or finding the answers to other really
important questions.”

WILLIAMSON’S LEGACY LIVES ON IN OTHER NATURALISTS
Biologists like Smith aren’t the only ones continuing Williamson’s legacy.
Though a dedicated dragonfly enthusiast, Williamson was a banker by pro-
fession until the Great Depression. Similarly, other dragonfly enthusiasts have
helped shape Oklahoma’s odonate story without being biologists by trade.
“A lot of entomological knowledge has been built from citizen scientists,”
Smith said. “We’ve collected dragonfly and damselfly records from probably

WWW.INATURALIST.COM

Outdoor enthusiasts have logged 92 species of dragonflies and 47 species of damselflies in Oklahoma using the popular and free iNaturalist platform.
Sharing photos and sighting details allows everyday Oklahomans to continue the legacy of Williamson and the biologists that have followed in his steps.

40 OUTDOOR OKLAHOMA