Duckweed Firetail Damselfly Habitats: Dark Abdomens, Long Claspers

Summary: North American duckweed firetail damselfly habitats give brown-bodied females and red-bodied males with long claspers Atlantic and Gulf coastal duckweed.

duckweed firetail damselfly (Telebasis byersi) in Sarasota, Sarasota County, southwestern Florida; Monday, July 4, 2005: CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American duckweed firetail damselfly habitats accord arborists, master gardeners and master naturalists mushy-soiled Atlantic and Gulf distribution ranges from the Delmarva Peninsula through Texas into Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.

Duckweed firetails bear their common name because of duckweed (Lemna spp) habitats and male red abdomens and the scientific name Telebasis byersi (Byers' distant [wing] base). Common and scientific names commemorate Dragonfly Society of the Americas' choices and C. Francis Byers (Nov. 18, 1902-Oct. 27, 1981), University of Florida zoologist in Gainesville. Descriptions in 1957 by Minter Jackson Westfall, Jr. (Jan. 28, 1916-July 20, 2003), Professor of Zoology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, decide scientific designations.

Duckweed firetail damselfly lifespans expect canopy-covered ponds and swamps, shaded river and stream backwaters and wooded wetlands with duckweed, ferns, grasses, water lettuce and water lilies.

January through November function as maximum, most southerly flight seasons even though June and July furnish wildlife mapping opportunities for all southeastern coastal and inland niches.

Adult female and male duckweed firetail damselflies never go far from emergent vegetation, floating plants and shaded waters as they glean opportunistic passers-by and stalked prey. They hunt like other pond damsels and related firetails by heading out for low-level, search-and-seize flights in and out of heavy vegetation and from hidden perches. Legs and mouthparts immobilize prey because of undetectably diminutive forktail presences in dense shade since the female is tan and even though the male is red.

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

Immature female and male duckweed firetails keep to duller, lighter, more faded, paler colors than adult females and to smaller sizes than both diminutively mature genders.

Incomplete metamorphosis lets duckweed firetails leave egg stages atop floating duckweed for egg-hatched, flightless, immature, multi-molting larval, naiad or nymph stages on that same carpet's undersides. The last molt moves immature duckweed firetails into adulthood for maturing in woodlands away from wetlands and for mating and ovipositing over the same duckweed carpets. Firetail members of the Coenagrionidae pond damsel family need aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms.

North American duckweed firetail damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 5 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20.55 to 1.66 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 duckweed firetails.

Black-marked brown heads; brown- to red-brown-topped, tan-bottomed eyes; black-striped brown thoraxes with whitish undersides; brown abdomens with narrow, pale basal rings quicken adult firetail female identifications. Adult firetail males reveal black heads; red faces; red-topped yellow-bottomed eyes; black-striped red thoraxes with pale undersides; black-marked, clear wing bases; black-streaked red sides; red abdomens. Adults show off 0.98- to 1.22-inch (25- to 31-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.79- to 0.94-inch (20- to 24-millimeter) abdomens and 0.51- to 0.67-inch (13- to 17-millimeter) hindwings.

Dark-patterned abdomens and long claspers tell duckweed from female desert forktails and other odonates and from male desert firetails in overlapping American duckweed firetail damselfly habitats.

duckweed firetail damselfly (Telebasis byersi) in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve's Barataria Preserve, Marrero, Jefferson Parish, southeastern Louisiana; Saturday, May 18, 2013, 10:25:22: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), 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:

duckweed firetail damselfly (Telebasis byersi) in Sarasota, Sarasota County, southwestern Florida; Monday, July 4, 2005: CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Telebasis_byersi.jpg; pondhawk, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38686613@N08/4780228173/

duckweed firetail damselfly (Telebasis byersi) in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve's Barataria Preserve, Marrero, Jefferson Parish, southeastern Louisiana; Saturday, May 18, 2013, 10:25:22: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsblog/20606311774/

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.

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

"Telebasis byersi. James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Coenagrionidae > Telebasis.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=4232

"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/

Westfall, Minter J. Jr. "A New Species of Telebasis from Florida (Odonata: Zygoptera): Telebasis byersi, n.sp." The Florida Entomologist, vol. 40, no. 1 (March 1957): 20-26.
Available via JSTOR @ http://www.jstor.org/stable/3492988
Available via The Florida Entomologist @ http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/55734/53413