Attenuated Bluet Damselfly Habitats: Long Abdomen and Wing, Pale Tip

Summary: North American attenuated bluet damselfly habitats in Atlantic, Gulf and some inland states get long abdomens and wings on pale-tipped bodies.

attenuated bluet damselfly; Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve, Warren, central Tyler County, East Texas; Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 16:04:59: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American attenuated bluet damselfly habitats aroint cultivators with soggy soils but not naturalists with Atlantic and Gulf distribution ranges from Massachusetts through Texas inland into Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Attenuated bluets bear their common names for elongated abdomens and blue colors and the scientific name Enallagma daeckii (together [in ovipositing[ damselfly [honoring collector Erich] Daecke). The scientific name commemorates entomological contributions by Victor Arthur Erich Daecker (May 28, 1863-Oct. 27, 1918), assistant in the Pennsylvania State Department of Zoology at Harrisburg. Its designations derive from descriptions in 1903 by Philip Powell Calvert (Jan. 29, 1871-Aug. 23, 1961), publisher from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of 300-plus odonate-related articles and notes.

Attenuated blue damselfly life cycles expect lakes, marshes, ponds, stream backwaters and swamps with sandy bottoms, shaded borders, shrubby edges and thick vegetation in wet woodlands.

April through September function as optimal, southernmost flight seasons even though June furnishes wildlife mapping opportunities throughout all attenuated bluet habitat niches in the United States.

Attenuated bluet damselflies go for daytime foraging and pre-mating perches and night-time resting roosts within shaded, tangled thickets and tall grasses that guard against bluet-eating predators. They hunt like other gleaning pond damsels and unlike hawking darners, emeralds, gliders and saddlebags and sallying broadwings, clubtails, non-glider, non-saddlebag skimmers, related dancers and spreadwings. Clear, dot-tipped, narrow wings impel attenuated bluet damselflies from immobile perching to imprison opportunistic passersby and paused prey within black-spurred, black-striped pale legs and lower lips.

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

Immature attenuated bluet damselflies keep to light, pale brown-tan colors and low size ranges even though adult males know one color form and mature females three.

Incomplete metamorphosis leads attenuated bluet lifespans from rod-shaped eggs laid in herbaceous, low-lying stems to little adult-like, multi-molting, non-flying larvae, naiads or nymphs and to maturity. Shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals manage permanent colors and sexual maturation one to three weeks after molting and mate at higher points within waterside grass and shrubs. Bluet 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 attenuated bluet damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, north- to south-ward, from minus 45 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 to minus 3.88 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 attenuated bluets.

Blue, blue-green or tan eyespots, heads and thoraxes, blue, blue-green- or tan-tipped black abdomens and tan-bottomed eyes with brown-, double-lined dark tops quicken adult female identifications. Adult males reveal big, black-outlined blue eyespots, black abdomens with blue terminal segments and tips, black-patterned blue heads, black-striped blue thoraxes, blue faces and blue-green eyes. Adults show off 1.38- to 1.85-inch (35- to 47-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.18- to 1.58-inch (30- to 40-millimeter) abdomens and 0.74- to 0.98-inch (19- to 25-millimeter) hindwings.

Long, slender abdomens and wings on black-sparse, extensively pale-tipped bodies tell attenuated bluets from other bluets and pond damsels in North American attenuated blue damselfly habitats.

attenuated blue damselfly's body and wings (fig. 1), left profile and dorsal views of 10th abdominal segment and appendages (figs. 3-4), and third tarsal claw (fig. 5); drawings of Enallagma daeckii, under synonym of Telagrion daeckii, in Philip P. Calvert's description, Entomological News (February 1903), Plate III, opposite page 33: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

attenuated bluet damselfly; Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve, Warren, central Tyler County, East Texas; Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 16:04:59: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Attenuated_Bluet_-_Enallagma_daeckii,_Watson_Preserve,_Warren,_Texas_-_22176429559.jpg; Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/

attenuated bluet damselfly's body and wings (fig. 1), left profile and dorsal views of 10th abdominal segment and appendages (figs. 3-4), and third tarsal claw (fig. 5); drawings of Enallagma daeckii, under synonym of Telagrion daeckii, in Philip P. Calvert's description, Entomological News (February 1903), Plate III, opposite page 33: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4614748

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; and Oxford UK: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Beaton, Giff. Dragonflies & Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast. Athens GA; and London UK: University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Berger, Cynthia. Dragonflies. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books: Wild Guide, 2004.

Bright, Ethan. "Enallagma Selys, 1875 (Bluets)." 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. "Additions to the Odonata of New Jersey, With Descriptions of Two New Species: Telagrion ? daeckii, n. sp." Entomological News and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. XIV, no. 2 (February 1903): 36-39. Philadelphia PA: Entomological Rooms of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1903.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24623828
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112017792323?urlappend=%3Bseq=56

Calvert, Philip P. "Obituary: Victor Arthur Erich Daecke." Entomological News and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, vol. XXX, no. 2 (February 1919): 58-60. Philadelphia PA: Entomological Rooms of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1903.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2556429
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112017792497?urlappend=%3Bseq=70

"Enallagma daeckii." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Coenagrionidae > Enallagma.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=3659

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/