Black-Tipped Darner Dragonfly Habitats: Long Claspers, Narrow Waists

Summary: North American black-tipped darner dragonfly habitats get long claspers, narrow waists, paired spots, slanted and straight stripes and unlined faces.

female black-tipped darner dragonfly (Aeshna tuberculifera); St. Olaf's Natural Lands, Northfield, northern Rice County, southeastern Minnesota; Friday, Sep. 1, 2017, 12:22:08: Scott King (Vicinum), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American black-tipped darner dragonfly habitats address aquatic cultivation and naturalism with distribution ranges from Prince Edward Island through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Alberta, Prince Edward Island and everywhere in-between.

Black-tipped darners bear their common names for dark abdominal ends and knitting needle-like abdomens and the scientific name Aeshna tuberculifera (misshapen [spear with] bump [on claspers]). Common names count upon scientific committee consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose eighth Bulletin of American Odonatology considers baskettail dragonflies in New Jersey. Descriptions in 1908 by Edmund Murton Walker (Oct. 5, 1877-Feb. 14, 1969), Professor of Entomology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1906-1948, dominate scientific designations.

Black-tipped darner life cycles expect clear semi-acidic lake coves, ponds and streams with boggy, emergent, floating, marshy vegetation such as bur-reeds, cattails, irises, rushes and sedges.

June through October function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though July through September furnish wildlife mapping opportunities for black-tipped darner coastal and inland niches.

Black-tipped darners go in the late afternoon to a wooded wetland series of forest edges, paths and trails and of open and vegetated watersides and waters. They hover over vegetated coves and ponds while they harry as homeland intruders and hunt as edible prey Canada (Aeshna canadensis) and green-striped (Aeshna verticalis) darners. Andromorphs, as blue-spotted black-tipped darner females, unlike yellow-green-spotted heteromorphs, imitate male itineraries even though they investigate below, not above, bur-reed, cattail, iris, rush and sedge tops.

Ants, biting midges, ducks, falcons, fish, flycatchers, frogs, grebes, lizards, robber flies, spiders, turtles and water beetles and mites jeopardize North American black-tipped darner dragonfly niches.

Immature black-tipped darners keep to dull colors and small sizes even though adults know blue-green spots and stripes as males and blue- or yellow-green as females.

Andromorphs and heteromorphs lay rod-shaped eggs afternoons and evenings in cattails, dry pond grasses and mud and emergents below, to one yard (0.92 meter) above, waterlines. Egg-hatched, multi-molting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs incompletely metamorphose into shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that mature physically and sexually, mate and manipulate eggs into ovipositing sites. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish mosaic darner members of the Aeshnidae dragonfly family.

North American black-tipped darner dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, 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 black-tipped darners.

Blue, green or yellow front- and side-striped thoraxes, blue-, green- or yellow-spotted, long, narrow-waisted, slender abdomens, dot-tipped wings and large ovipositors qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal blue or blue-green front- and slanted side-striped thoraxes and paired abdominal spots, dark legs, dark long claspers, dot-tipped wings, narrow waists and turquoise eyes. Adults show off 2.79- to 3.07-inch (71- to 78-millimeter) head-body lengths, 2.09- to 2.48-inch (53- to 63-millimeter) abdomens and 1.73- to 1.97-inch (44- to 50-millimeter) hindwings.

Long claspers, paired spots, slanted and straight thoracic stripes and unlined faces tell narrow-waisted black-tipped darners from other odonates in North American black-tipped darner dragonfly habitats.

black-tipped darner dragonfly (Aeshna tuberculifera) in flight; Frederick County, north central Maryland; Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010, 16:29:12: Mike Ostowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 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:

female black-tipped darner dragonfly (Aeshna tuberculifera); St. Olaf's Natural Lands, Northfield, northern Rice County, southeastern Minnesota; Friday, Sep. 1, 2017, 12:22:08: Scott King (Vicinum), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/minnesotameadowhawk/36967866035/

black-tipped darner dragonfly (Aeshna tuberculifera) in flight; Frederick County, north central Maryland; Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010, 16:29:12: Mike Ostowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38976602@N05/5073165945/

For further information:

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"Aeshna tuberculifera." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera >Aeshnidae > Aeshna.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=42

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. "Aeshna tuberculifera Walker, 1908: 385 - Black-tipped Darner." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Aeshnidae Rambur, 1842: 181 (Darners) > Aeshna Fabricius, 1775 (Mosaic Darners).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

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Walker, E. M. (Edmund Murton). A Key to the North American Species of Aeshna Found North of Mexico: 15. tuberculifera, n. sp." The Canadian Entomologist, vol. XL, no. 11 (November 1908): 395. London, Canada: The London Printing and Lithographing Company Limited, 1908.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3100517