Searching for the rare emerald

CENTERVILLE, Mo. -- Armed with butterfly nets, thick rubber boots and just a dash of mosquito repellent, Bob Gillespie and Scott Kelley go out into marshy meadows in pursuit of the jewel of all bugs -- the elusive Hine's emerald dragonfly.

Declared endangered in Missouri and federally, the Hine's emerald dragonfly is known to exist in just four states. It was discovered in Missouri in 1999.

"Nobody really looked for it before, but it's been here for thousands of years," said Gillespie, the natural history regional biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Based in Cape Girar-deau, Gillespie is the Hine's emerald dragonfly recovery leader for all of Missouri.

The number of Hine's emerald dragonflies in the state is still undetermined, Gillespie said, because biologists haven't finished searching and mapping all potential dragonfly habitats. So far, researchers have found Hine's emerald dragonflies in about 20 locations in Missouri, all in the lower Ozarks region. But Gillespie has started looking for the dragonfly in Bollinger County as well.

Gillespie and Kelley, an assistant naturalist, know from experience just how rare a gem the Hine's emerald dragonfly can be. On Thursday, the two didn't find a single specimen after driving more than 100 miles from Cape Girardeau to the Grasshopper Hollow Natural Area just outside Centerville, Mo., in Reynolds County. They've been searching since March and have only observed a few Hine's emerald dragonflies in flight. None has been captured this year.

Through the efforts of other environmental agencies, three Hine's emerald dragonflies have been captured in the state this year.

Hine's emerald dragonflies are so hard to find partly because because their habitats are rare. The dragonflies live exclusively in fens -- marshy, spring-fed sedge meadows where the water is slightly acidic because of limestone deposits. The area also must support a crayfish population because the Hine's emerald dragonfly spends its larval stage in crayfish burrows.

Kelley said fens can range in size from roughly the size of a large living room to several hundred acres. Grasshopper Hollow is massive by Missouri fen standards. At 593 acres, it's one of the largest fens in North America.

"Some fens are so small that even if you walk in there you could do some damage," Kelley said. "And in our search we don't want to go around hurting the things we're trying to save."

But fens are becoming even rarer in Missouri. More than 90 percent of the fens and other wetlands that once existed in Missouri have been drained, often for agricultural purposes. The Hine's emerald dragonfly has felt the effects.

Protecting the Hine's emerald dragonfly and other endangered species has real human consequences, Gillespie said.

"It suggests that if they die out then we could too," Gillespie said. "If we continue to destroy the natural environment, we hurt ourselves in the end."

But Gillespie said much is being done to save the Hine's emerald dragonfly and other endangered species. The Department of Conservation and other environmental agencies have programs to restore habitats, remove harmful exotic species, and educate the public about endangered plants and animals. Also, Gillespie said the Department of Conservation sometimes buys land from willing sellers to help protect the endangered species that already live there.

Gillespie said the work he does with Kelley locating the Hine's emerald dragonfly also helps because they make reports to the state on the dragonflies they see.

"It gives us an idea of the successes we have or the failures we have so we can try to do something else," Gillespie said.

wmcferron@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127