American Southern Sprite Damselfly Habitats: Dark-Capped Blue Eyes

Summary: North American southern sprite damselfly habitats from Rhode Island to Florida inland to the Great Plains shelter dark-capped blue-eyed females and males.

southern sprite damselfly (Nehalennia integricollis) in Caroline County, central Eastern Shore, Maryland; June 18, 2011: Mike Ostrowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

North American southern sprite damselfly habitats ambush arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards in distribution ranges coastally from Rhode Island through Florida inland into Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Southern sprites bear their common name for distribution ranges and tiny sizes and the scientific name Nehalennia integricollis (Celtic or Germanic river goddess [with] whole-necked [prothorax]). Common names consult the consensus of scientific committees convened by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose Executive Council sometimes confers gratis memberships outside North America. Scientific designations develop descriptions in 1913 by Philip Powell Calvert (Jan. 29, 1871-Aug. 23, 1961), biology Ph.D.-holder from the University of Pennsylvania and entomologist from Philadelphia.

Southern sprite damselfly lifespans expect bogs, lakes, marshes, ponds, slow stream reaches and swamps with dense in-water and waterside grasses, sedges and weeds and waterlogged soils.

March through September function as maximum, most southerly flight seasons even though June through August furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout all sprite coastal and inland niches.

Adult southern sprite damselflies go for near-ground-level perches and roosts in thick beds of bog, lake, marsh, pond, stream or swamp grasses, herbs, sedges and weeds. They hold onto their perches and roosts horizontally over and parallel to stalks and stems until harried by predators or hastening after ground-level invertebrate opportunistic prey. They imitate North America's everglades, sedge, sphagnum and tropical sprites in imprisoning prey as gleaning perchers that find food by flying for, flushing or following passers-by.

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

Immature females and males keep dull, faded, light, pale colors and small sizes even as they know un-adult-like, fine-line-joined postocular spots and fine pale-striped thoracic fronts.

Incomplete metamorphosis leads southern sprite damselflies through life cycle stages as eggs; egg-hatched, molting, non-flying larvae, naiads or nymphs; shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying, white tenerals; and adults. Immature and mature stages may forage in adjoining uplands even though adults mate and tandem oviposit (lay eggs) in floating, water-level grass, herbaceous or sedge stems. Sprite members of the Coenagrionidae pond damsel family need aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms.

North American southern sprite damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 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 southern sprites.

Brown-capped blue eyes; somewhat dulled metallic-green thoracic fronts; blue or yellow thoracic undersides; clear wings; and blue-tipped, somewhat dulled metallic-green abdomens qualify as adult female identifications. Adult males reveal brown-black-capped blue eyes; blue-lined occipital bars; blue-segmented, metallic-green abdomens and upper thoraxes; pale blue abdominal and thoracic sides; and black-paired upper abdominal streaks. Adults show off 0.79- to 0.98-inch (20- to 25-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.63- to 0.79-inch (16- to 20-millimeter) abdomens and 0.43- to 0.55-inch (11- to 14-millimeter) hindwings.

Absence of brown-black-capped blue eyes in males and of brown-capped blue eyes in females tells on other sprites in overlapping North American southern sprite damselfly habitats.

photo by Loret T. Setters: Florida Native Plant @PineLilyFNPS via Twitter post, July 30, 2016

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

southern sprite damselfly (Nehalennia integricollis) in Caroline County, central Eastern Shore, Maryland; June 18, 2011: Mike Ostrowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38976602@N05/6055059892/

photo by Loret T. Setters: Florida Native Plant @PineLilyFNPS via Twitter post, July 30, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/PineLilyFNPS/status/759364989496926208

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. "Nehalennia Selys, 1850 (Sprites)." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Zygoptera Selys, 1854 > Coenagrionidae, Kirby, 1890 (Pond Damselflies).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Calvert, Philip P. "The Species of Nehalennia (Odonata), Including One From the Eastern United States Hitherto Undescribed." Entomological News and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, vol. XXIV, no. 7 (July 1913): 311-316. Philadelphia PA: The Academy of Natural Sciences, 1913.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26396425
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106256464?urlappend=%3Bseq=373

Florida Native Plant @PineLilyFNPS. "Central Florida Critter of the Day: Southern Sprite Damselfly (Nehalennia integriccolis)." Twitter. July 30, 2016.
Available via Twitter @ https://twitter.com/PineLilyFNPS/status/759364989496926208

"Nehalennia integricollis." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Coenagrionidae > Nehalennia.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=3877

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/