Mocha Emerald Dragonfly Habitats: Brown-Green Thorax, Spotted Abdomen

Summary: North American mocha emerald dragonfly habitats get black legs, blue heads, brown-green thoraxes, dotted dark abdomens, green eyes and yellow-brown faces.

mocha emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis); Montgomery County, central Maryland; Wednesday, Sep. 15, 2010, 11:51:57: Mike Ostrowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American mocha emerald dragonfly habitats acknowledge vernal pool-loving naturalists and water garden-loving cultivators in distribution ranges from Massachusetts through Florida, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario and Connecticut and everywhere in-between.

Mocha emeralds bear their common name for dark brown abdomens and metallic green eyes and thoraxes and the scientific name Somatochlora linearis ([iridescent] green, long body). Common names cement scientific consensus in the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose 15th Bulletin of American Odonatology checks Latin America's Lestes apollinaris and henshawi damselflies. Scientific designations date-stamp 1861 for descriptions by August Hermann Hagen (May 30, 1817-Nov. 9, 1893), nephew of government official Friedrich Hagen (Feb. 16, 1759-March 5, 1846).

Mocha emerald life cycles expect permanent and temporary forest streams 1 to 3 yards (0.91 to 2.74 meters) wide with leaf litter, mud and rocky riffles.

May through October function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though July and August furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout mocha emerald coastal and inland niches.

Mocha emeralds go mornings, midafternoons and evenings on 60- to 100-foot (18.29- to 30.48-meter) stream and 20- to 30-yard (18.29- to 27.43-meter) serial ephemeral pool patrols. They hang at midday obliquely or vertically from low-lying streamside branches, head over treetops and hover 2 to 3 feet (0.61 to 0.91 meters) above water. They implement 3-foot (0.91-meter) side-to-side, up-and-down undulations in unison yard- (0.91-meter-) apart flights and glides and investigate tangled, vine-filled floodplain forest undergrowth, clearings and dirt roads.

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

Immature mocha emeralds keep red-brown eyes even though adult females and males know brilliant green eyes and shiny blue-, green-, orange-, white- and yellow-marked black-brown bodies.

Incomplete metamorphosis leads mocha emeralds from rod-shaped eggs laid by unaccompanied females in gravel, mud or sand; to immature, multi-molting larvae, naiads or nymphs; molted tenerals. Immature nonflying stages metamorphose into shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that manage permanent colors and physical and sexual maturation to 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 striped emerald members of the Corduliidae dragonfly family.

North American mocha emerald dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 10 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.33 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 American emeralds.

Dull green eyes; amber- and brown-tinted clear wings; dull brownish, greenish thoraxes; perpendicular, pointed ovipositors half the length of male claspers qualify as adult female hallmarks. Adult males reveal yellow-brown faces; blue-topped heads; metallic brownish, greenish thoraxes; clear wings; black legs; large white-spotted and small orange-spotted, long, slender abdomens; long, toothed claspers. Adults show off 2.21- to 2.76-inch (56- to 70-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.65- to 2.21-inch (42- to 56-millimeter) abdomens and 1.49- to 1.97-inch (38- to 50-millimeter) hindwings.

Brown-and-green thoraxes and large white-spotted, small orange-spotted black-brown abdomens tell black-legged, blue-headed, green-eyed, yellow-brown-faced mocha emeralds from other odonates in North American mocha emerald dragonfly habitats.

female mocha emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis): Sunday, June 27, 2010, 02:19:38: pondhawk, 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:

mocha emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis); Montgomery County, central Maryland; Wednesday, Sep. 15, 2010, 11:51:57: Mike Ostrowski (BCNH09), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38976602@N05/4994989550/

female mocha emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora linearis): Sunday, June 27, 2010, 02:19:38: pondhawk, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38686613@N08/4770155354

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. "Somatochlora linearis (Hagen, 1861: 137 as Cordulia) - Mocha Emerald." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 - Dragonflies > Corduliidae Selys, 1850 (Emeralds) > Somatochlora Selys, 1871 (Striped Emeralds).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Hagen, Hermann. "2. C. linearis! Cordulia linearis Hagen!" Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America. With a List of the South American Species: 137. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. IV, art. I. Translated from Latin to English by Philip Reese Uhler. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, July 1861.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1321609
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t32241f34?urlappend=%3Bseq=172

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

"Somatochlora linearis." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Corduliidae > Somatochlora.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=878

"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/

Walter Sanford @Geodialist. "Mocha Emerald dragonfly claspers." Twitter. July 13, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Geodialist/status/885424055502999552