Clamp-Tipped Emerald Dragonfly Habitats: Spotted Abdomen, Striped Thorax

Summary: North American clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly habitats get green eyes; orange-yellow faces, spots and stripes; dot-tipped wings; and dark-legged bodies.

immature female clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora tenebrosa); Okefenokee Swamp, southeastern Georgia; May 4, 2017: gailhampshire, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly habitats accommodate arborists, gardeners, naturalists and tree stewards in distribution ranges from Nova Scotia through Florida, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ontario and New Brunswick and everywhere in-between.

Clamp-tipped emeralds bear their common name for clamp-like claspers and metallic greenness and the scientific name Somatochlora tenebrosa (green-bodied [and] tenebrous) as dark, gloomy, mysterious shade-lovers. Common names consolidate scientific consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose 18th Bulletin of American Odonatology considers British Columbian mosaic darners and Cayman odonates. Scientific designations draw upon descriptions in 1839 by Thomas Say (June 27, 1787-Oct. 10, 1834), maternal great-nephew of naturalist William Bartram (April 20, 1739-July 22, 1823).

Clamp-tipped emerald life cycles expect forested, leaf-littered bogs, fens with sedge, seeps, small streams with rapids and riffles, late-summer serial pools and 2-yard- (1.83-meter-) wide trickles.

May through October function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though July through August furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout clamp-tipped emerald coastal and inland niches.

Clamp-tipped emeralds go out early in the morning or evening or late in the afternoon as rapid, strong fliers over pastures and water and through forests. They hang obliquely from low-lying perches on bushy, grassy, herbaceous, sedgy, weedy stems under thin branches away from forest water bodies and hover over wooded wetlands. Their itineraries involve intermittent immobile interludes during investigations of forest edges; permanent brooks, creeks, riffles and streams; and serial summer pools before immobilizing and ingesting prey.

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

Immature clamp-tipped emeralds keep bright yellow in their body coloration and red-brown in their eyes during multi-molts even though adults know metallic green eyes and thoraxes.

Incomplete metamorphosis links eggs laid by females in mossy, muddy, rocky, vegetation-filled water bodies; immature multi-molting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs; and shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals. Immature stages metamorphose into molted tenerals that manage physical and sexual maturation before mating and females manipulating eggs into ovipositing sites by tapping water with abdomens. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish striped emerald members of the Corduliidae dragonfly family.

North American clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 9.44 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 treetop emeralds.

Dark-tipped, clear wings amber-tinting and browning with age; large-, orange-, side- and upper-spotted third abdominal segments; long claspers; and short ovipositors qualify as adult female hallmarks. Black-legged males reveal blue-black-topped, brown-orange-yellow faces; clear, dot-tipped wings; clubbed, pale-marked, ringed, spotted black-brown abdomens; and green-highlighted black-brown thoraxes with two straight-, white-yellow stripes per side. Adults show off 1.89- to 2.56-inch (48- to 65-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.29- to 1.81-inch (33- to 46-millimeter) abdomens and 1.29- to 1.65-inch (33- to 42-millimeter) hindwings.

Dot-tipped wings; green-highlighted, white-yellow-striped black-brown thoraxes; and orange-yellow-spotted black-brown abdomens tell black-legged, brown-orange-yellow-faced, green-eyed clamp-tipped emeralds from other odonates in North American clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly habitats.

male clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora tenebrosa); Geauga County, northeastern Ohio: Geauga Park District @GeaugaParkDistrict, via Facebook July 21, 2014

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

immature female clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora tenebrosa); Okefenokee Swamp, southeastern Georgia; May 4, 2017: gailhampshire, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gails_pictures/38643015036/

male clamp-tipped emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora tenebrosa); Geauga County, northeastern Ohio: Geauga Park District @GeaugaParkDistrict, via Facebook July 21, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152527270122973

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. "Somatochlora tenebrosa (Say, 1839: 19 as Libellula) - Clamp-tipped Emerald." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 - Dragonflies > Corduliidae Selys, 1850 (Emeralds) > Somatochlora Selys, 1871 (Striped Emeralds).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Geauga Park District @GeaugaParkDistrict. "A male Clamp-tipped Emerald on the wing at Observatory Park flew a little too close to my net last week." Facebook. July 21, 2014.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152527270122973

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

Roger Tory Peterson @RTPInstitute. "Clamp-tipped Emerald." Twitter. Sept. 9, 2014.
Available @ https://twitter.com/RTPInstitute/status/509366140746076160

Say, Thomas. "Descriptions of New North American Neuropterous Insects, and Observations on Some Already Described. Read July 12, 1836: 4. L. tenebrosa." Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: vol. VIII, part I: 19-20. Philadelphia PA: Merrihew and Thompson, 1839.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24622970
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106432990?urlappend=%3Bseq=29

"Somatochlora tenebrosa." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Corduliidae > Somatochlora.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=891

"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/