Elusive Clubtail Dragonfly: Greenish Eyes, Brown-Green-Yellow Body

Summary: North American elusive clubtail dragonfly habitats get greenish eyes, barred upper faces, brown-, green-, yellow-marked dark bodies and dark legs.

elusive clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus notatus); Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014, 12:24:43: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American elusive clubtail dragonfly habitats agree with gravel, sand, silt garden-loving cultivators and wetland-loving naturalists in distribution ranges from Maine through Alberta, Missouri, Tennessee, eastern Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and everywhere in-between.

Elusive clubtails bear their common name for rarity, except during emergence, and for clubbed abdomens and the scientific name Stylurus notatus ([elongate abdomen] style-tailed [and] marked). Common names consider scientific consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose 33rd Bulletin of American Odonatology covers broadwing, narrow-wing, shadow-dragon, spreadwing and threadtail distributions. Descriptions in 1842 by Jules Pierre Rambur (July 21, 1801-Aug. 10, 1870), colleague of Adolphe Hercule de Graslin (April 11, 1802-May 31, 1882), determine scientific designations.

Elusive clubtail life cycles expect big, slow-flowing rivers and large lakes with gravel, sand and silt bottoms within brushlands, forests, grasslands and woodland sides of valleys.

May through October function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though July through September furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout North America's elusive clubtail habitat niches.

Dennis Paulson's Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, Princeton University Press field guide from 2011, gives Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and western Manitoba and Nebraska isolated populations. Records from distribution ranges and isolated populations have elusive clubtails on extended sweeping water patrols from noon to 3 p.m. beyond binocular, capture and photographic ranges. Their itineraries include inhabiting perches and roosts in forest canopies and initiating foraging interludes as sallier perchers in canopy treetops and on valley brush and grass.

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

Immature elusive clubtails keep gravelly, sandy, silty valley, lake and river breeding habitat-kind colors and sizes even though adults know green-eyed, brown-, green-, yellow-marked black bodies.

Incompletely metamorphosing life cycles lead from round eggs laid over lake or river water to immature, multimolting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs and to molted tenerals. Little adult-like stages metamorphose into shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that master permanent colors and physical and sexual maturation before mating and ovipositing back at breeding habitats. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish hanging clubtail members of the Gomphidae dragonfly family.

North American elusive clubtail dragonfly habitats offer north- to southward, season-coldest temperatures from minus 45 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 15 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 elusive clubtails.

Black legs with pale bases to hind femora (thighs), ovipositors, two claspers and black abdomens with yellow spots, stripes and triangles qualify as adult female hallmarks. Dark-bodied males reveal black-brown-, single-barred upper faces, wide-set eyes, yellow-, side-striped thoraxes with dark legs and dusky-tipped wings, yellow-spotted, side-striped, triangle-patterned clubbed abdomens and three claspers. Adults show off 2.05- to 2.52-inch (52- to 64-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.46- to 1.65-inch (37- to 42-millimeter) abdomens and 1.18- to 1.38-inch (30- to 35-millimeter) hindwings.

Green, wide-set eyes, black-and-yellow-striped thoraxes, dusky-tipped wings, yellow-spotted, yellow-striped abdomens with yellow triangles tell elusive clubtails from other odonates in North American elusive clubtail dragonfly habitats.

elusive clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus notatus); Detroit River, Windsor, southwestern Ontario, east central Canada; Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2015, 00:32:37: Mark Nenadov (marknenadov), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

elusive clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus notatus); Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014, 12:24:43: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsblog/19504334268/

elusive clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus notatus); Detroit River, Windsor, southwestern Ontario, east central Canada; Tuesday, Sep. 8, 2015, 00:32:37: Mark Nenadov (marknenadov), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/marknenadov/24435341189/

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. "Stylurus notatus (Rambur, 1842: 162 as Gomphus) - Elusive Clubtail." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Gomphidae (Clubtails) > Stylurus Needham, 1897 (Handing Clubtails).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

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

Rambur, P. (Jules Pierre). 1842. "10. Gomphus notatus, mihi." Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Névroptères: 207. Paris, France: Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1842.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015058433833?urlappend=%3Bseq=194
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/histoirenaturel53buffgoog#page/n207/mode/1up

"Stylurus notatus." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Gomphidae > Stylurus.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=1855

"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/