American Spotted Spreadwing Damselfly Habitats: Dark-Spotted Thoraxes

Summary: North American spotted spreadwing damselfly habitats in southern Canada and the northern to southwestern United States get uniquely dark-spotted thoraxes.

spotted spreadwing damselfly (Lestes congener) on stem of silverleaf nightshade (Solanum eleagnifolium); Saturday, July 19, 2008, 17:41: JerryFriedman, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American spotted spreadwing damselfly habitats adopt cultivation along lakes and ponds and naturalism through distribution ranges from southern Canada through the northern United States southward into California, Mississippi and New Mexico.

Spotted spreadwings bear their common name for thoracic spots and wings reposed at 45-degree angles and the scientific name Lestes congener (robber [in the] same [species]). Common names cater to the consensus of scientific committees convened by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas concerning non-scientific names for Latin and North American odonates. Scientific designations derive from descriptions in 1861 by Hermann August Hagen (May 30, 1817-Nov. 9, 1893), Harvard University entomologist from Königsberg, Germany (Kaliningrad, Russia, since 1945).

Spotted spreadwing damselfly lifespans expect freshwater lakes and ponds or saline waters near open forests, grasslands, shrublands or woodlands with tall grassy, herbaceous or woody vegetation.

May through November function as maximum, most southerly flight seasons even though July through October furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout all North American spotted spreadwing niches.

Adult male spotted spreadwing damselflies, as pond, not stream, spreadwings, go for perches and roosts near but not necessarily alongside bigger or smaller lakes and ponds. They never hover when they head low over open water and always hurry to waterside perches late in the day after woodland forages in sunny niches. They inhabit hidden, higher perches and roosts 10 feet (3.05 meters) or more above abundant emergent vegetation near ephemeral or permanent, fishless, sheltered lakes and ponds.

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

Immature female and male spotted spreadwing damselflies keep to dull, faded, light, pale colors and small sizes even up to the last molted, shiny-winged, soft-bodied teneral.

Pre-adults live as egg-hatched, multi-molting naiads and then as molted brown, then dark, then metallic tenerals before locating mates, oftentimes away from water. Mates move from open forests, grasslands, shrublands or woodlands to mid-afternoon oviposition sites down and up grassy, herbaceous or woody stems above or on water surfaces. Pond spreadwing members of the Calopterygidae broad-winged family need aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms.

North American spotted spreadwing damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 to 1.66 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 spotted spreadwings.

Brown eyes and upper lips and brown, short, thick abdomens with expanded tips and thoraxes with blue-gray-powdered undersides and four dark spots quicken adult female identifications. Males reveal blue eyes and upper lips and blue-gray-powdered metallic brown abdomens and thoraxes with black and tan stripes and four black spots on lower sides. Adults show off 1.26- to 1.65-inch (32- to 42-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.95- to 1.38-inch (24- to 35-millimeter) abdomens and 0.71- to 0.91-inch (18- to 23-millimeter) hindwings.

Absence of four dark spots per side of thoracic underparts tracks the presence of pond and stream spreadwings in overlapping North American spotted spreadwing damselfly habitats.

spotted spreadwing damselfly (Lestes congener); Vaseux Lake Provincial Park, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia; Friday, Oct. 5, 2012, 13:23: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, 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:

spotted spreadwing damselfly (Lestes congener) on stem of silverleaf nightshade (Solanum eleagnifolium); Saturday, July 19, 2008, 17:41: JerryFriedman, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lestes_species.jpg

spotted spreadwing damselfly (Lestes congener); Vaseux Lake Provincial Park, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia; Friday, Oct. 5, 2012, 13:23: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spotted_Spreadwing_-_Lestes_congener,_Vaseux_Lake_Provincial_Park,_Okanagan_Falls,_British_Columbia_-_8058468105.jpg; Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/8058468105/

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. "Lestes congener Hagen 1861: 67 -- Spotted Spreadwing." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Zygoptera, Selys, 1854 > Lestidae, Calvert, 1901 (Spreadwings) > Lestes Leach, 1815 (Pond Spreadwings).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Hagen, Hermann. "L. congener! Lestes congener Hagen!" Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America. With a List of the South American Species: 67-68. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. IV, art. I. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, July 1861.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1321205
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t32241f34?urlappend=%3Bseq=102

"Lestes congener." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Lestidae > Lestes.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=4456

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