Widow Skimmer Libellula luctuosa: Dragonfly With Velvety Black Wings

Summary: Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa) is a New World dragonfly native to Canada and the United States. Adult male wings are showy black, white and clear bands.

female Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa), Wildwood Preserve Metropark, Toledo, northwestern Ohio: Benny Mazur, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Libellula luctuosa is a New World dragonfly native to Canada, Mexico and the United States.

In Canada, Libellula luctuosa claims homelands in the eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Libellula luctuosa's range in Mexico includes the northern states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sonora.

In the United States, Libellula luctuosa enjoys nativity from coast-to-coast in the Lower 48, with the exception of four Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

Libellula luctuosa’s English common name of Widow Skimmer reflects the dark patches radiating from the base of the wings as well as the species name, luctuosa, Latin for “mournful, sad.”

Despite the melancholy scientific and common names, Widow Skimmers are startlingly beautiful with their dramatic black-banded wings with glass-like tips.

Widow Skimmers prefer wet environments, such as vegetative habitats, ideal for perching, in proximity to lakes, marshes, ponds, and slow streams.

They also haunt drier, open habitats, such as meadows and roadsides, and exhibit rare toleration for montane habitats up to around 5,500 feet (1,676 meters).

Widow Skimmers are large dragonflies with adult body lengths of 1.5 to almost 2 inches (4 to 5 centimeters). Their adult wingspan measures over 3 inches (8 centimeters).

Adult females, along with juveniles of both sexes, differ in appearance from adult male Widow Skimmers. Juveniles and adult females are dark-bodied with a yellow, segmented line dramatically bisecting the upper side of the thorax and subsequently dividing into two lines to frame the outer edges of the upper side of the abdomen. Their wings sport black or dark patches fanning from the base to the center and succeeded by a clear, glass-like section to the tips.

Adult males present a steely blue body coated with pruinosity, a powdery layer created by wax particles in their cuticle, or exoskeleton. Adult males exhibit a showy wing pattern of velvety black widow patches succeeded by a central, wide band of chalky whiteness, with an expanse of glass-like transparency defining the tips.

During a walk along the nature trail 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south of my house, my brother, sister and I were entertained by a male Widow Skimmer flitting between perches in the streamside mixed grove of catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) and willow (Salix spp.) trees.

The exuberant male’s stately attractiveness glimmered as sunlight bestowed a velvet appearance upon his abdomen and widow patches; cast a pure, chalky sheen upon his white bands; and created a sparkling prism with his wingtips.

male Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa), Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Sarpy County, southeastern Nebraska: MONGO, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

female Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa), Wildwood Preserve Metropark, Toledo, northwestern Ohio: Benny Mazur, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Libellula_luctuosa_Burmeister.jpg?uselang=fr

male Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa), Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Sarpy County, southeastern Nebraska: MONGO, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Libellula_luctuosa_7.20.2008.jpg?uselang=fr

For further information:

Dunkle, Sidney W. Dragonflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America. Oxford UK; New York NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.

"Libellula luctuosa." NatureServe Explorer.
Available @ http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Libellula%20luctuosa

Neal, Jonathan (jjneal). "The Widow Skimmer." Living with Insects Blog. June 15, 2011.
Available @ https://livingwithinsects.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/the-widow-skimmer/

Paulson, Dennis. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton Field Guides. Princeton NJ; Woodstock UK: Princeton University Press, 2009.

Paulson, Dennis. “Libellula luctuosa.” The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2.
Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/165064/0

Van Dokkum, Pieter. Dragonflies: Magnificent Creatures of Water, Air, and Land. New Haven CT; London UK: Yale University Press, 2015.

“Widow skimmer (Libellula luctuosa).” Arkive > Species > Invertebrates – terrestrial and freshwater.
Available @ http://www.arkive.org/widow-skimmer/libellula-luctuosa/