The Hine's emerald dragonfly, the rarest dragonfly on the planet and the only to appear on the Federal Endangered Species List, recently stopped traffic in Illinois. That is, it commanded attention from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) to the tune of $6 million.

 

The funds support a wide-ranging scientific project involving the creation of dragonfly habitat. "Dragonfly condos," as many tollway officials call them, are man-made ponds and rivulets designed to mimic natural breeding areas.

 

With an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 individual insects left in the Chicago region -- and the only other known breeding sites thought to lie in Door County, Wisconsin; Missouri; northern Michigan and Canada -- the Hine's has attracted broad attention.

 

"It's a rare species," Dr. Daniel Soluk, a biologist with the University of South Dakota, said in an interview with Chicago Wilderness magazine. "We're not talking about elk, or mountain lions, we're talking about an insect and that's a low, low population number for an insect."

 

Soluk heads up the Hine's conservation effort in conjunction with the university and ISTHA, among other partners. The main challenge is that the dragonfly prefers a unique habitat (consisting of ground water that flows among cattails and sedges in prairie wetlands). Human encroachment and development has destroyed nearly all of this landscape, making it critical for future development projects to recognize the species' needs and try to mitigate damage.

 

About 100 feet below the tollway bridge deck covering the Des Plaines River Valley, the Hine's is thought to congregate each summer. And now, motorists are supporting the species' conservation program every time they throw change in the tollway basket or zip through the I-Pass lane.

 

The Interstate Highway 355 Bridge (pictured above) was built higher to avoid car-dragonfly collisions. The bridge spans two critical habitat areas -- Will County's Keepataw Preserve and Black Partridge Woods in Cook County, both sites for the new dragonfly condos.

 

Dragonflies feed on smaller insects such as mosquitoes, biting flies and gnats. In their nymph stage, they also act as a primary food source for fish. But perhaps the most striking purpose of a dragonfly to humans is its role as an indicator species.

 

Much like birds and other animals, these insects can help us assess environmental health. For instance, the fact that the Hine's population has dropped so drastically tells us that the quality and quantity of groundwater in Illinois -- and elsewhere -- is at risk.

 

"The same things that affect the Hine’s are the same things that are going to affect humans, because we are also drawing down the groundwater and we’re not doing a lot to conserve it," Soluk said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.
  

• Learn how you can help prevent the extinction of this species. Visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

• For more about new roads and protecting biodiversity, check out this Chicago Wilderness special report by Christopher Hayes.

• Curious about other rare animals and plants of Illinois? Photographer Carol Freeman, of Glenview, Ill., is attempting to capture all 483 threatened and endangered species in the state (by lens, of course).