Slender Stripe-Winged Baskettail Dragonfly Habitats: Brown-Haired, Yellow-Spotted

Summary: North American slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly habitats get dark-edged or tipped wings, hairy, spotted thoraxes and spotted, thin abdomens.

slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly (Epitheca costalis); T.O. Fuller State Park, South Memphis, Shelby County, southwestern Tennessee; Friday, April 8, 2016, 12:27:22: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly habitats accommodate arborists, gardeners and naturalists in wet woodland distribution ranges from New Jersey through Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and everywhere in-between.

Slender stripe-winged baskettails bear their common name for brown-edged wings and egg-tipped, slim abdomens and the scientific name Epitheca costalis (upon a case [a] coastal [stripe]). Common names cultivate scientific committee consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose 20th Bulletin of American Odonatology contributes to comprehending odonate-friendly fauna in Connecticut. Scientific designations draw upon descriptions in 1871 by Michel Edmond de Sélys Longchamps (May 25, 1813-Dec. 11, 1900), son of Marie-Denise Gandolphe de Sélys Longchamps (1777-1857).

Slender stripe-winged baskettail life cycles expect sand-bottomed lakes, sandy ponds and slow pools and reaches of clean rivers and streams with sparse emergent and submerged vegetation.

January through July function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though April or May furnishes wildlife mapping opportunities throughout North American slender stripe-winged baskettail niches.

Slender stripe-winged baskettails go from night-time roosts out on feeding swarms, food-searching and perch-seeking flights along forest edges and mate-sizing patrols along watersides in large numbers. They hang obliquely from shaded, twiggy perches higher up in large trees and lower down in bushes and shrubs and hover along watersides and over water. Their itineraries invite investigation since the slender stripe-winged baskettail possibly interbreeds with common baskettails (Epitheca cynosura) and is the eastern equivalent  of dot-winged baskettails (Epiheca petechialis).

Ants, assassin flies, biting midges, ducks, falcons, flycatchers, frogs, grebes, lizards, spiders, turtles and water beetles and mites jeopardize North American slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly habitats.

Immature slender stripe-winged baskettails keep their bodies yellow-marked and their eyes red-brown even though adults know dark blue, emerald green or red-gray eyes and orange-yellow-marked bodies.

Incompletely metamorphosing life cycles lead from egg strings laid on submergent vegetation, to immature, multi-molting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs and to shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals. Immature larval stages molt into tenerals as much as 18.05 feet (5.5 meters) above ground in pine trees and 34.45 feet (10.5 meters) from watery birthplaces. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish baskettail members of the Corduliidae emerald dragonfly family.

North American common baskettail dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 31.66 to minus 1.11 degrees Celsius).

Beech, bellflower, birch, bladderwort, cattail, daisy, grass, greenbrier, heath, laurel, madder, maple, nettle, olive, pepperbush, pine, pondweed, rush, sedge and willow families promote slender stripe-winged baskettails.

Brown-striped leading-edges of frontal veins on dot-tipped forewings and hindwings and straight claspers as long as abdominal segments nine and ten qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal orange-yellow faces with black triangle-marked foreheads, black-brown claspers and legs, dot-tipped clear wings, hairy, small-, yellow-, side-spotted black-brown thoraxes and  yellow-, side-spotted black-brown abdomens. Adults show off 1.65- to 1.77-inch (42- to 45-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.10- to 1.26-inch (28- to 32-millimeter) abdomens and 0.98- to 1.10-inch (25- to 28-millimeter) hindwings.

Brown-edged or dot-tipped wings, hairy, yellow-spotted thoraxes and yellow-spotted abdomens tell orange-yellow-faced slender stripe-winged baskettails from other odonates in North American slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly habitats.

slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly (epitheca costalis); Overton Park Old Forest, Memphis, Shelby County, southwestern Tennessee; Tuesday, April 12, 2016, 13:32:36: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly (Epitheca costalis); T.O. Fuller State Park, South Memphis, Shelby County, southwestern Tennessee; Friday, April 8, 2016, 12:27:22: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsblog/25710983743/

slender stripe-winged baskettail dragonfly (epitheca costalis); Overton Park Old Forest, Memphis, Shelby County, southwestern Tennessee; Tuesday, April 12, 2016, 13:32:36: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsblog/25814394423/in/photolist-Fk8w6V

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.

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. "Epitheca (Tetragoneuria) costalis (Selys, 1871: 273 as Cordulia) -- Slender Baskettail." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Corduliidae Selys, 1850 (Emeralds) > Epitheca Burmeister, 1839 (Baskettails).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Muttkowski, Richard A. "Studies in Tetragoneuria (Odonata): Tetragoneuria costalis Selys." Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, vol. 9, no. 3 (July 1911): 132-133. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Edw. Keogh Press, 1911.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5250004
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106243645?urlappend=%3Bseq=538

Muttkowski, Richard A. "Studies in Tetragoneuria (Odonata): Tetragoneuria williamsoni sp. nov." Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, vol. 9, no. 3 (July 1911): 122-124. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Edw. Keogh Press, 1911.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5249986
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106243645?urlappend=%3Bseq=528

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

Sélys Longchamps, M. Edm. (Michel Edmond) de. "Synopsis des Cordulines: 22. Cordulia costalis, de Selys." Bulletin de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, quarantième année (série 2), tome XXXI, no. 5 (séance du 9 mai 1871): 273. Bruxelles, Belgium: F. Hayez, 1871.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5497409
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044093256931?urlappend=%3Bseq=283

"Tetragoneuria costalis." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Corduliidae > Tetragoneuria.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=928

"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/