Northern Spreadwing Damselfly Habitats: Dark-Backed Head, Striped Thorax

Summary: North American northern spreadwing damselfly habitats from Alaska through the American northeast and southwest get dark-backed heads on striped thoraxes.

northern spreadwing damselfly (Lestes disjunctus); Eau Galle Dam Road, Spring Valley, Dunn County, northwestern Wisconsin; Friday, July 29, 2011: Aaron Carlson (aarongunnar), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American northern spreadwing damselfly habitats afford cultivation with ephemeral and permanent waters and naturalism with distribution ranges from Alaska eastward and southward through Canada and the northern and southwestern United States.

Northern spreadwings bear their common name as northerners with wings reposed 45 degrees apart and the scientific name Lestes disjunctus (robber disjoined) for cannibalistic, predatory females. Common names cede to the consensus of scientific committees convened by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas concerning non-scientific names since the common spreadwing species' cessation. Scientific designations devolve upon descriptions in 1862 by Michel Edmond de Sélys Longchamps (May 25, 1813-Dec. 11, 1900), world-famous damselfly and dragonfly specialist from Paris, France.

Northern spreadwing damselfly lifespans expect ephemeral or permanent, slow-moving, somewhat shallow, still bogs, lakes, marshes and ponds with dense and scattered emergent vegetation and open stretches.

May through October function as optimal, southernmost flight seasons even though July through August furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout all of North America's northern spreadwing niches.
Adult male northern spreadwing damselflies get together to fly back and forth over open water and scattered vegetation and to perch over dense emergent grassy vegetation. They hold down additional perches atop grassy and herbaceous vegetation near, or not so proximitous to, watery breeding habitats and egg-depositing, egg-hatching, emergence and molting sites. Long-spined long legs impel them to flycatching sallies from perches in open, sunny forests, grasslands, shrublands and woodlands before involving females in 15-minute matings before midday.

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

Immature northern spreadwing damselflies keep to dull, faded, light, pale colors and lower size ranges even as juvenile females know female-like heteromorph and male-like andromorph forms.

Egg-hatched northern spreadwings live as molted larvae, naiads or nymphs and then as molted, shiny-winged, soft-bodied tenerals before leaving immaturity as physically independent, sexually mature adults. Tandem pairs move six eggs per immersion by successively submerging and surfacing or per incision by ovipositing on above-water dead or live bulrush or sedge stems. 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 northern spreadwing damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 40 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 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 northern spreadwings.

Black, somewhat blue-gray-powdered abdomens, blue or brown eyes, blue-, dark-, green- or tan-striped, sometimes gray-blue-powdered thoraxes and white lower- and under-sides qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal blue eyes and upper lips and blue-gray-powdered dark thoraxes with blue-striped shoulders and sometimes with blue midlines and blue-gray-powdered sides and metallic green abdomens. Adults show off 1.29- to 1.65-inch (33- to 42-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.96- to 1.20-inch (24.5- to 30.5-millimeter) abdomens and 0.71- to 0.91-inch (18- to 23-millimeter) hindwings.

Absence of blue-, green-, tan-striped, blue-gray-powdered thoraxes and of dark-backed heads tells on similar-looking pond and stream spreadwings in overlapping North American northern spreadwing damselfly habitats.

male northern spreadwing damselfly (above) and female northern spreadwing damselfly (below); photo by Mary Hopson/The Turtle Puddle: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-New England District, Public Domain, 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:

northern spreadwing damselfly (Lestes disjunctus); Eau Galle Dam Road, Spring Valley, Dunn County, northwestern Wisconsin; Friday, July 29, 2011: Aaron Carlson (aarongunnar), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5988764825/

male northern spreadwing damselfly (above) and female northern spreadwing damselfly (below); photo by Mary Hopson/The Turtle Puddle: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-New England District, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lestes_disjunctus.gif

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 disjunctus disjunctus Selys, 1862: 302 -- Northern Spreadwing." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Zygoptera, Selys, 1854 - Dragonflies > Coenagrionidae, Kirby, 1890 (Pond Damselflies) > Lestidae, Calvert 1901 (Spreadwings) > Lestes.
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

"Lestes disjunctus." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Lestidae > Lestes Leach, 1815 (Pond Spreadwings).
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=4460

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Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/histoirenaturel53buffgoog#page/n289/mode/1up

Sélys Longchamps, M. (Michel Edmond) de. "Synopsis des agrionines (Suite): 2me Légion -- Lestes: 10. Lestes disjuncta, De Selys." Bulletin de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, trente et unième année (série 2), tome XIII: 302-303. Bruxelles, Belgium: M. Hayez, 1862.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36916999
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435065430191?urlappend=%3Bseq=312

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
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