Variable Dancer Damselfly Habitats: Bouncy Flight, Violet Bodies

Summary: North American variable dancer damselfly habitats in eastern Canada and eastern and Great Plains United States get dark wings, jerky flight, violet bodies.

variable dancer damselfly (Argia fumipennis); Bright Pond Lane, Reston, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; July 14, 2012: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

North American variable dancer damselfly habitats approach cultivators along water and naturalists within coastal distribution ranges from Nova Scotia southward through Texas westward through Ontario, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana southward into Mexico.

Variable dancers bear their common name for geographic variation and non-smooth flight and the scientific name Argia fumipennis (damselfly [with] smoky-winged [body]), with three subspecies names. The Burmeister classifications in 1861 consolidate the first, nominate subspecies name, Argia fumipennis fumipennis, but not the subspecies names Argia fumipennis atra and Argia fumipennis violacea. Leonora Gloyd's (Aug. 29, 1902-June 3, 1993) and Hermann Hagen's (May 30, 1917-Nov. 9, 1893) respective descriptions in 1968 and 1861 determine black and violet designations.

Variable dancer lifespans expect dammed streams, forest edge or roadside ditches, sandy-shorelined lakes, shallow ponds and rivers with exposed rocks, gentle currents and grasses and sedge.

January through December function as optimum, southernmost flight seasons even though June through September furnish wildlife mapping opportunities for all niches, from the coasts through the Rockies.

Female variable dancers go to perches and roosts away from water whereas males go over riffles before getting onto aquatic vegetation, bare ground or rocky surfaces. Behavior, body patterns, geography and wing color herd variable dancers into three subspecies, with smoky-winged dancers having the habit of opening and shutting wings at rest. All female and male black, smoky-winged and violet variable dancers immobilize motionless or moving food sources by sallies for stalked prey or from perches after incidental passersby.

Ants, biting midges, ducks, falcons, fish, flycatchers, frogs, grebes, lizards, robber flies, spiders, turtles and water beetles, bugs and mites jeopardize North American variable dancer damselfly habitats.

Immature variable dancers keep dull, faded, light, pale colors and small sizes whereas black, smoky-winged and violet adults know clear- or dark-winged dark or violet bodies.

Incompletely metamorphosing, three-stage life cycles link eggs on dead or live stems or surface debris; multi-molting, non-flying, somewhat adult-like larvae, naiads or nymphs; and winged adults. The last molt metamorphosizes immature dancers into shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals and then into mature damselflies for 24-minute mating, 34-minute ovipositing site searches and 58-minute egg-laying. Dancer 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 variable dancer damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 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, water-lily and willow families promote variable dancers.

Brown eyes, clear wings northward and westward and dark southeastward, dark-marked pale legs, dark-striped brown abdomens and brown to red-brown thoraxes qualify as adult female hallmarks. Male variable dancer damselflies reveal brown-topped, violet-bottomed eyes; black-striped, white-sided violet thoraxes; clear wings northward and westward and dark southeastward; black-marked pale legs; and violet abdomens. Adults show off 1.14- to 1.34-inch (29- to 34-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.91- to 1.10-inch (23- to 28-millimeter) abdomens and 0.71- to 0.91-inch (18- to 23-millimeter) hindwings.

Green thoraxes and red wing bases respectively tell ebony jewelwings and smoky rubyspots from black and smoky-winged dancers in overlapping North American variable dancer damselfly habitats.

variable dancer damselfly (Argia fumipennis); Jones Preserve, Washington, Rappahannock County, Northern Virginia; July 23, 2016: Judy Gallagher (judygva), CC BY 2.0, 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:

variable dancer damselfly (Argia fumipennis); Bright Pond Lane, Reston, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; July 14, 2012: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Variable_Dancer_-_Argia_fumipennis,_Bright_Pond_Park,_Reston,_Virginia.jpg

variable dancer damselfly (Argia fumipennis); Jones Preserve, Washington, Rappahannock County, Northern Virginia; July 23, 2016: Judy Gallagher (judygva), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Variable_Dancer_-_Argia_fumipennis,_Jones_Preserve,_Washington,_Virginia_-_28244817940.jpg

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