Septima's Clubtail Dragonfly: Clubbed, Pale-Marked Body, Wavy Crest

Summary: North American Septima's clubtail dragonfly habitats get chunky thoraxes, clubbed, pale-marked bodies, dusky-tipped wings, long hind legs and wavy crests.

Female and male Septima's Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphus septima) described by American entomologist Minter Jackson Westfall Jr. (Jan. 28, 1916-July 20, 2003) were collected by American odonatologist and collector Robert S. Hodges in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama from Warrior River's Lock 16 on May 17, 1938, and from Warrior River above Blue Creek on May 23, 1940, respectively; Wednesday, June 16, 1999, image of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)-constructed Holt Lake Lock and Dam, which opened in 1966 at mile marker 347.0 from the Black Warrior River's mouth and replaced four old locks (numbers 14 to 17), including the 1938 findspot of the female Septima's Clubtail dragonfly, Lock 16, whose construction at mile marker 364.0 had begun in 1909: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

North American Septima's clubtail dragonfly habitats applaud rock-, sand- and silt-loving cultivators and wet woodland-loving naturalists with distribution ranges in Alabama, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.

Septima's clubtails bear their common name as a North American odonatologist's namesake and for clubbed abdomens and the scientific name Gomphus septima (Septima's [crossbow arrow-like] bolt). The common and the species names commemorate Septima Cecilia Smith (Nov. 6, 1891-July 9, 1984) of the Biology Department at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 1927-1962. Delawarensis subspecies descriptions by Frank Carle and Thomas Donnelly in 2000 and septima by Minter Jackson Westfall, Jr. (Jan. 28, 1916-July 20, 2003) in 1956 decide scientific designations.

Septima's clubtail life cycles expect clean, large- or medium-sized, moderate-flowing woodland rivers with rocky riffles, rocky, sandy or silty banks and bottoms and grassy, log-scattered watersides.

May through June function as earliest to latest flight seasons and furnish wildlife mapping opportunities in all of Septima's clubtail habitat niches in the United States.

Septima's clubtails go out from night-time roosts between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. to gain mates; get field, ground, log, rocky, treetop perches; and grab prey. They have midday breaks away from water, head to sunny fields and forest clearings, hold horizontally onto leaves, logs, rocks and wood and hover over water. Their itineraries involve immobilizing invertebrate prey, especially butterflies and dragonflies, as sallier perchers like broadwings, dancers, nonglider nonsaddlebag skimmers and spreadwings.

Ants, assassin flies, biting midges, ducks, falcons, fish, flycatchers, frogs, grebes, lizards, spiders, turtles and water beetles and mites jeopardize North American Septima's clubtail dragonfly habitats.

Immature Septima's clubtails keep rock-, sand-, silt-, woodland-kind colors whereas adults know darker downsizing in the northern delawarensis (Delaware River) subspecies than in the southern septima.

Incomplete metamorphosis launches round eggs loosened by females tapping abdominal tips three times over 13.12-foot (4-meter) intervals of water after mating as late as 7 p.m. Egg-hatched, immature, little adult-like, multimolting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs metamorphose on rocks, sand and silt into shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that mature, mate and oviposit. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish common clubtail members of the Gomphidae dragonfly family.

North American Septima's clubtail dragonfly habitats offer northward to southward, season-coldest temperatures from minus 15 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.11 to minus 12.22 degrees Celsius).

Beech, bellflower, birch, bladderwort, cattail, daisy, grass, greenbrier, heath, laurel, madder, maple, nettle, olive, pepperbush, pine, pondweed, rush, sedge, water-lily and willow families promote Septima's clubtails.

Ovipositors, pale-streaked hind thighs, pointed tubercle for each compound and simple side eye, two claspers and wavy crests with v-indented middles qualify as adult female hallmarks. Adult males reveal black-brown, chunky thoraxes, brown, dark-shinned, long hind legs, dark-veined, dot-tipped clear wings, clubbed, pale-lined, pale-spotted black-brown abdomens, three claspers and turquoise eyes. Adults show off 2.09- to 2.44-inch (53- to 62-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.54- to 1.81-inch (39- to 46-millimeter) abdomens and 1.26- to 1.42-inch (32- to 36-millimeter) hindwings.

Turquoise eyes, chunky thoraxes, dark-veined, dot-tipped wings and clubbed, pale-lined and pale-spotted abdomens tell Septima's clubtails from other odonates in North American Septima's baskettail dragonfly habitats.

(lower left and right) male and female Septima's Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphus septima; Gomphurus septima); Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Bibb County, central Alabama: Mary Jane Krotzer, via Facebook April 25, 2020

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Female and male Septima's Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphus septima) described by American entomologist Minter Jackson Westfall Jr. (Jan. 28, 1916-July 20, 2003) were collected by American odonatologist and collector Robert S. Hodges in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama from Warrior River's Lock 16 on May 17, 1938, and from Warrior River above Blue Creek on May 23, 1940, respectively; Wednesday, June 16, 1999, image of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)-constructed Holt Lake Lock and Dam, which became operable June 30, 1966, at mile marker 347.0 from the Black Warrior River's mouth and replaced four old locks (numbers 14 to 17), including the 1938 findspot of the female Septima's Clubtail dragonfly, Lock 16, whose construction at mile marker 364.0, near the foot of Squaw Shoals, had begun in 1909 and been completed in 1915: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USACE_Holt_Lock_and_Dam_Alabama.jpg;
"A-6 Navigation Locks and Dams Operable June 30, 1966," page 116, Annual Report on U.S. Army Civil Works Activities for Fiscal Year 1966, vol. I (1966), via Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) @ https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA636401.pdf;
"Black Warrior River, Ala. From Tuscaloosa to Mulberry and Locust Forks," between pages 1702-1703 (Appendix R "Improvement of Rivers and Harbors in the Mobile, Ala., District," pages 1697-1734; R-3 Improvement of Black Warrior, Warrior, and Tombigbee Rivers, Ala. and Miss.," pages 1702-1711), Report of the Chief of Engineers U.S. Army 1911, in Three Parts, Part II, via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Library @ https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll6/id/1158;
Nelson Brooke, "River Facts," via Black Warrior Riverkeeper @ https://blackwarriorriver.org/river-facts/

(lower left and right) male and female Septima's Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphus septima; Gomphurus septima); Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Bibb County, central Alabama: Mary Jane Krotzer, via Facebook April 25, 2020, @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/119127804903860/posts/1549346525215307/

For further information:

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Beaton, Giff. Dragonflies & Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast. Athens GA; London UK: University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Berger, Cynthia. Dragonflies. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books: Wild Guide, 2004.

Donnelly, Thomas W.; and Frank L. Carle. "A New Subspecies of Gomphus (Gomphurus) Septima from the Delaware River of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania (Odonata, Gomphidae)." International Journal of Odonatology, vol. 3, no. 2 (2000): 111-123. Leiden, Netherlands: Backhuys, 1998-.
Available @ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13887890.2000.9748142

"Gomphus septimus." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Gomphidae > Gomphus.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=1268

Needham, James G. (George). A Manual of the Dragonflies of China: A Monographic Study of the Chinese Odonata. Zoologica Sinica, Series A: Invertebrates of China, vol. 11, fascicule 1. Peiping, China: Fan Memorial Institue of Biology, 1930.

Paulson, Dennis. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2011.

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/

Westfall, Minter J., Jr. 1956. "A New Species of Gomphus from Alabama (Odonata): Gomphus septima n. sp." Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences, vol. 19, no. 4 (December 1956): 251-258. p. 253. Gainesville FL: Florida Academy of Sciences, 1956.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41518404 Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/24315226