Arrowhead Spiketail Dragonfly Habitats: Arrowhead-Patterned Abdomens

Summary: North American arrowhead spiketail dragonfly habitats get barely touching, big eyes on arrowhead-marked, brown-yellow, clear-winged, dark-legged bodies.

arrowhead spiketail dragonfly (Cordulegaster obliqua); Colchester Park, Mason Neck, southernmost Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Thursday, June 16, 2016, 15:15: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American arrowhead spiketail dragonfly habitats allot cultivators bottomlands and naturalists distribution ranges from Maine southward through Florida and Texas, westward through Quebec and Ontario, Minnesota, Kansas and Oklahoma and everywhere in-between.

Arrowhead spiketails bear their common name for arrowhead-patterened upper abdomens and for spiked ovipositors and the scientific name Cordulegaster obliqua (club-shaped belly [and] oblique [thoracic side-stripes]). The northern nominate (first-named) species carries the scientific name Cordulegaster obliqua obliqua and considers classifications in 1839 by entomologist Thomas Say (June 27, 1787-Oct. 10, 1834). The southern subspecies' scientific name, Cordulegaster obliqua fasciata (club-bellied, oblique, bandaged [dragonfly]), derives from descriptions in 1842 by Jules Pierre Rambur (July 21, 1801-Aug. 10, 1870).

Arrowhead spiketail life cycles expect muck-, sand-, soft-bottomed, small, swift streams and muck-bottomed, spring-fed rivulets with hardwood forests, muddy seeps, rocks, serialized pools and skunk cabbage.

May through August function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though June furnishes wildlife mapping opportunities for all arrowhead spiketail dragonfly coastal and inland niches.

Arrowhead spiketails go for foraging perches high on woody twigs or low on weedy stems and to midday patrols over the same breeding and woodland stretches. They hang at angles of 45 degrees to weedy, woody perches, harry competitors, head out on low, slow cruises among tall herbs and hunt in fields. They immobilize food sources, including bees and wasps, within dark, short, three-segmented legs and strong lower lips and impel themselves rapidly over tree canopies if irritated.

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

The northern, pale yellow, 2.83- to 3.15-inch- (72- to 80-millimeter-) long subspecies keeps brown-bottomed, green-topped eyes and to two-celled forewing triangles and three-celled male anal triangles. The aquamarine-blue-eyed, bright yellow-bodied 3.15- to 3.46-inch- (80- to 88-millimeter-) long southern subspecies loads three cells onto forewing triangles and four cells onto male anal triangles.

Egg-hatched, multi-molting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs metamorphose into shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that manage physical and sexual maturation within one week, mating and ovipositing (egg-laying). North American spiketail members of the Cordulegastridae family need aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms.

North American arrowhead spiketail dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, north- to south-ward, from minus 45 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 6.66 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 arrowhead spiketails.

Brown-marked yellow faces, centered arrowhead-like patterns yellowing upper abdomens, double narrow upper and wide shoulder yellow-striped thoraxes and long pointed ovipositors qualify as adult female hallmarks. Brown-and-yellow-faced, dark-legged, dark-tipped adult males retain the same black- to red-brown thoraxes and black-brown abdomens even though they reveal blotched next-to-last and spotted last abdominal segments. Adults show off 2.83- to 3.46-inch (72- to 88-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.89- to 2.83-inch (48- to 72-millimeter) abdomens and 1.61- to 2.36-inch (41- to 60-millimeter) hindwings.

Arrowhead-patterned abdomens, big eyes, clear to smoky wings, dark-, short-legged, dark-tipped brown-and-yellow bodies tell arrowhead spiketails from other odonates in North American arrowhead spiketail dragonfly habitats.

arrowhead spiketail dragonfly (Cordulegaster obliqua); southwestern Missouri; Saturday, June 20, 2015, 13:40:22: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (Wildreturn), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flick

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

arrowhead spiketail dragonfly (Cordulegaster obliqua); Colchester Park, Mason Neck, southernmost Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Thursday, June 16, 2016, 15:15: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arrowhead_Spiketail_-_Cordulegaster_obliqua,_Colchester_Park,_Mason_Neck,_Virginia_-_27442522210.jpg

arrowhead spiketail dragonfly (Cordulegaster obliqua); southwestern Missouri; Saturday, June 20, 2015, 13:40:22: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (Wildreturn), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildreturn/19336431196/

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, 2005.2005.

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. "Cordulegaster (Taeniogaster) obliqua (Say, 1840: 15 as Aeschna) -- Arrowhead Spiketail." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 -- Dragonflies > Cordulegastridae Newman, 1853 (Spiketails) > Cordulegaster Leach, 1838 (Spiketails).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

"Cordulegaster obliqua." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Cordulegastridae > Cordulegaster.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=517

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

Rambur, M. P. (Jules Pierre). "1. Cordulegaster fasciatus, mihi." Histoire Naturelle des Insectes: Névroptères: 178. Paris, France: Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, 1842.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015058433833?urlappend=%3Bseq=210
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/histoirenaturel53buffgoog#page/n223/mode/1up

Say, Thomas. "Descriptions of New North American Neuropterous Insects, and Observations on Some Already Described. Read July 12, 1836: 8. AE. obliqua." Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: vol. VIII, part I: 15-16. Philadelphia PA: Merrihew and Thompson, 1839.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24623000
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106432990?urlappend=%3Bseq=25

"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/