Ten Acre Pond, Scotia, PA

Home of Aeshna mutata, the Spatterdock Darner, and over 80 other species

 
Dragonfly Society of the Americas , Northeast US Regional Meeting, June 9-12, 2005
State College, Pennsylvania

Ten Acre Pond is a semi-permanent pond about four miles west of State College, Pennsylvania. It supports a diverse odonate fauna which includes two species (Aeshna mutata and Anax longipes) that are considered to be vulnerable in Pennsylvania.  The nearly continuous yearly monitoring of Odonata at Ten Acre Pond for half a century provides a record dominated by relative stability in species composition and frequent changes in relative abundance of the 85 species recorded for the pond.  Many of the changes can be attributed to several droughts and three periods of unusually high water, the most recent of which will continue into June 2005.  The year-to-year and seasonal distributions of the 85 species of Odonata known from Ten Acre Pond are presented elsewhere on this site.

From Harold B. White, III (1963) Seasonal Distribution and Abundance of Odonata at a Large Pond in Central Pennsylvania. Ent. Soc. Am. - N. Cent. Br. Proc. 58, 120-124.
Ten Acre Pond is located in a region known as the Scotia Barrens. While the pond may be a natural feature, because many other vernal ponds exist in the area, iron mining operations from the 1881 through the 1911 and an associated railroad certainly modified it. The pond has no natural inlets or outlets; consequently, its water level rises and falls in response to weather cycles. Only once or twice has the pond dried completely. During periods of high water, local residents have stocked fish that influence the mix and abundance of dragonfly and damselfly species present.

Created 23 December 2004, Last Updated by Hal White 26 February 2009 [halwhite at udel.edu]