Zebra Clubtail Dragonfly: Black, White, Yellow Abdomen and Thorax

Summary: North American zebra clubtail dragonfly habitats get green eyes, striped or x-marked faces, black, white and yellow bodies and dusky-tipped wings.

zebra clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus scudderi): Pete @Wildernesspete, via Twitter July 28, 2016

North American zebra clubtail dragonfly habitats anchor fishers and naturalists in distribution ranges from Nova Scotia through Georgia, from Ontario through New Brunswick and in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Zebra clubtails bear their common name for black-and-yellow-striped bodies and heads and for clubbed abdomens and the scientific name Stylurus scudderi (Scudder's [elongate abdomen looking] style-tailed). The scientific name commemorates Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837-May 17, 1911), curator, custodian, librarian and president of the Boston Society of Natural History in Massachusetts. Scientific designations defer to descriptions in 1873 by Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps (May 25, 1813-Dec. 11, 1900), 16-year-old author and painter of Belgian bird species.

Zebra clubtail life cycles expect clean, slow- to swift-flowing, cobble-, gravel-, sand-bottomed, small rivers and trout streams with rocky riffles and within forest clearings and edges.

June through October function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though August and September furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout coastal and inland zebra clubtail niches.

Zebra clubtails go out late in the day to gain mates, get prey and guard perches on bushy foliage, rocky riffles, sand banks and shoreline logs. They head out on short, swift patrols of 50- to 100-foot (15.24- to 30.48-meter) territories, harry intruding river cruisers and hover over riffles more than pools. They immobilize and ingest flushed or fly-by invertebrate prey as sallier perchers like broadwings, dancers, nonglider nonsaddlebag skimmers and spreadwings and unlike gleaner perchers and hawkers.

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

Immature zebra clubtails keep river and stream cobble-, gravel-, rock-, sand-kind coloration even though adults know green eyes and vivid black-, green-, white- and yellow-marked bodies.

Round eggs laid intermittently over shallow riffles between unaccompanied females leaving for waterside treetops to load egg masses and to lounge launch incompletely metamorphosing life cycles. Immature, little adult-like, multimolting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs metamorphose into shiny-winged, tender-bodied, weak-flying tenerals that master permanent colors, physical and sexual maturation, mating and ovipositing. 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 zebra clubtail dragonfly habitats offer northward to southward, season-coldest temperatures from minus 45 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 12.22 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 zebra clubtails.

Dusky-tipped clear wings; black, stout, unclubbed abdomens with yellow-lined and triangle-patterned upper-sides, yellow-ringed segments and yellow-spotted sides; ovipositors; and two claspers qualify as adult female hallmarks. Adult males reveal black-striped faces; green eyes; white- or yellow-striped black thoraxes; black legs; dark-veined, dusky-tipped wings; white-yellow-ringed, spotted, triangle-patterned black, clubbed abdomens; and three claspers. Adults show off 2.24- to 2.28-inch (57- to 58-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.58- to 1.73-inch (40- to 44-millimeter) abdomens and 1.38- to 1.54-inch (35- to 39-millimeter) hindwings.

Black striped or x-marked faces and black-and-white- or black-and-yellow-marked abdomens and thoraxes tell zebra clubtails from other odonates in North American zebra clubtail dragonfly habitats.

Samuel Hubbard Scudder, namesake of Stylurus scudderi: Capt. Percy R. Creed, ed., The Boston Society of Natural History 1830-1880, page 37: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

zebra clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus scudderi): Pete @Wildernesspete via Twitter July 28, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/Wildernesspete/status/758678961870086144

Samuel Hubbard Scudder, namesake of Stylurus scudderi: Capt. Percy R. Creed, ed., The Boston Society of Natural History 1830-1880, page 37: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4922023

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 scudderi (Selys, 1873: 752 as Gomphus) - Zebra Clubtail." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 - Dragonflies) > Stylurus Needham, 1897 (Handing Clubtails).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

Creed, Capt. Percy R., ed. The Boston Society of Natural History 1830-1880. Boston MA: Boston Society of Natural History, 1930.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4922023

Felt, E.P. (Ephraim Porter). "Aquatic Insects of the Saranac Region: Gomphus scudderi Selys." Sixth Annual Report of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of the State of New York: 511. Albany NY: James B. Lyon, 1901.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/39917007

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

Pete ‏@Wildernesspete. "Why would you play Pokemon Go when you can catch real life gems like this Zebra Clubtail." Twitter. July 28, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Wildernesspete/status/758678961870086144

Sélys-Longchamps, M.Edm. (Michel Edmond) de. "Troisièmes Additions au Synopsis des Gomphines: 52ter. Gomphus scudderi, De Selys." Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 42me année, 2me série, tome XXXV, no. 6 (séance du 7 juin 1873): 752-753. Bruxelles (Brussels), Belgium: F. Hayez, MDCCCLXXIII (1873).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5493372
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924106526340?urlappend=%3Bseq=764

"Stylurus scudderi." 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=1862

"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/