Springtime Darner Dragonfly Habitats: Small Eyes, Spotted Wing Bases

Summary: North American springtime darner dragonfly habitats get brown-bodied, small-eyed, spotted, striped swift fliers with spotted wing bases dawn to dusk.

springtime darner dragonfly (Basiaeschna janata); Phelps Wildlife Management Area, near Sumerduck, Fauquier County, Northern Virginia; April 20, 2017: Judy Gallagher (judygva), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

North American springtime darner dragonfly habitats advance aquatic plant cultivation and naturalism with distribution ranges from Prince Edward Island through Florida, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Alberta, New Brunswick and everywhere in-between.

Springtime darners bear their common name for earliest to latest flight seasons and knitting needle-like abdomens and the scientific name Basiaeschna janata (basic misshape [in] January). Common names confirm the consensus of scientific committees convened in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose ninth Bulletin of American Odonatology considers odonates in Ohio. Scientific designations draw upon descriptions in 1839 by Thomas Say (June 27, 1787-Oct. 10, 1834), husband of naturalist Lucy Way Sistare (Oct. 14, 1801-Nov. 15, 1886).

Springtime darner life cycles expect beaver and oxygenated ponds and pools and slow-flowing small forest lakes, rivers and streams with little shoreline vegetation and rocky borders.

March through August function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though April or May furnishes wildlife mapping opportunities throughout coastal and inland springtime darner niches.

Springtime darners go back and forth over lake, pond and pool edges and river and stream banks from midday to sunset in rain, shade and sunlight. They hang obliquely or vertically from grass blades, low-lying sticks and canopy twigs and hurtle erratically from banks to shores over moving, open, shallow, still waters. Dawn-to-dusk, high-speed, high-up itineraries ignore mate-filled vegetation and swarms, include damselfly predation and investigate clearings, edges and fields within 100 yards (91.44 meters) of breeding habitats.

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

Immature springtime darners keep brown eyes, brown-and-green bodies and slender, small sizes while they know post-hatching homes on debris- and stick-jumbled piles along water body edges. Incomplete metamorphosis links rod-shaped eggs laid on floating leaves and upright herbaceous plants such as bur-reeds and spatterdocks, multi-molting larvae, naiads or nymphs and molted tenerals. Immature, little adult-like non-fliers metamorphose into recently emerged, shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that mature physically and sexually before mating and manipulating eggs into ovipositing (egg-laying) sites. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish cyrano darner members of the Aeshnidae dragonfly family.

North American springtime darner dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 6.66 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 springtime darners.

Amber wings, blue-, gray- or green-spotted abdomens, blue- or green-striped shoulders and thoracic sides, brown faces and brown or gray-blue eyes qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal blue-tinged brown eyes, blue-spotted abdomens, brown thoraxes with blue-green-white-yellow-, double-striped sides and blue-white-striped shoulders, clear wings with brown-spotted bases, T-marked foreheads and yellow-brown faces. Adults show off 1.97- to 2.64-inch (50- to 67-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.49- to 2.01-inch (38- to 51-millimeter) abdomens and 1.26- to 1.65-inch (32- to 42-millimeter) hindwings.

Blue-gray-green spots, blue-green-white-yellow stripes, brown-spotted wing bases and dawn-to-dusk high-speed patrols tell brown-bodied, small-eyed springtime darners from other odonates in North American springtime darner dragonfly habitats.

Springtime darner dragonfly's diet may include other odonates (damselfly and dragonfly insect order), such as ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata); springtime darner dragonfly (left) and ebony jewelwing damselfly (right) photos by Jonathan White: FotoPhysis @Fotophysis via Twitter July 9, 2016

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

springtime darner dragonfly (Basiaeschna janata); Phelps Wildlife Management Area, near Sumerduck, Fauquier County, Northern Virginia; April 20, 2017: Judy Gallagher (judygva), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/34189227235/

Springtime darner dragonfly's diet may include other odonates (damselfly and dragonfly insect order), such as ebony jewelwing damselfly (Calopteryx maculata); springtime darner dragonfly (left) and ebony jewelwing damselfy (right) photos by Jonathan White: FotoPhysis @Fotophysis via Twitter July 9, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/Fotophysis/status/751896922252840960

For further information:

Abbott, John C. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Princeton NJ; Oxford UK: Princeton University Press, 2005.

"Basiaeschna janata." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Aeschnidae > Basiaeschna.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=120

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.

Bright, Ethan. "Basiaeschna janata (Say, 1839: 13 as Aeschna)- Springtime Darner (syn.) Aeschna minor Rambur, 1842: 207." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Aeshnidae Rambur, 1842: 181 (Darners) > Basiaeschna Selys, 1883: 735 (Springtime Darner).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

FotoPhysis @Fotophysis. "Springtime Darner, Basiaeschna janata, eating Ebony Jewelwing." Twitter. July 9, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Fotophysis/status/751896922252840960

Marriner, Derdriu. "American Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly Habitats: Black Wings, Green Bodies." Earth and Space News. Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/02/american-ebony-jewelwing-damselfly.html

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

Say, Thomas. "Descriptions of New North American Neuropterous Insects, and Observations on Some Already Described: 6. AE. janata." Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. VIII, part I: 13-14. Philadelphia PA: Merrihew and Thompson, 1839.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24623002
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106432990?urlappend=%3Bseq=23

"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/