Swift River Cruiser Dragonfly Habitats: Dark Body, Green Eyes, Yellow Mark

Summary: North American swift river cruiser dragonfly habitats get dark bodies with green eyes and with yellow rings, spots, stripes, tips and triangles.

swift river cruiser dragonfly, also known as Illinois River cruiser (Macroma illinoiensis); Conway County, central Arkansas; Friday, July 7, 2006: pondhawk, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American swift river cruiser dragonfly habitats accommodate cultivators with accessible irrigation and naturalists with distribution ranges from Nova Scotia through Florida, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Alberta, Quebec and everywhere in-between.

Swift river cruisers bear their common name for fast-flying, river-patrolling males and the scientific name Macromia illinoiensis (equally long [as the largest dragonflies] Illinois [type specimen]). The subspecies' common name Illinois river cruiser and scientific name Macromia illinoiensis illinoiensis confirm classifications in 1862 by Benjamin Dann Walsh (Sept. 21, 1808-Nov. 18, 1869). The second subspecies, Georgia river cruiser, scientifically Macromia illinoiensis georgina, derives from descriptions in 1878 by Michel Edmond Longchamps de Sélys (May 25, 1813-Dec. 11, 1900).

Swift river cruiser life cycles expect northern, open lakes and clean to muddy southern rivers and streams with slow to swift currents with or without rocks.

March through November function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though July through August furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout coastal and inland North American niches.

Females and males go from dawn to dusk even on cloudy days, along paths, roads and shorelines over fields and water and through canopies and clearings. They harbor fast, steady wingbeats mornings and fluttering raised wings afternoons and hunt high up in mixed-species swarms or low down after clouds of flying insects. Black legs and lower lips imprison prey before and subsequent to adults perching perpendicularly and roosting high in the treetops and low in bushes and shrubs.

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

Immature swift river cruisers keep to amber-winged, dull-colored, flat-bodied, long-legged, spiny forms and low size ranges even though adults know bright blacks, browns, greens and yellows.

Incompletely metamorphosing life cycles lead from green, round eggs laid at high speeds over stream riffles to multi-molting, nonflying larvae, naiads or nymphs and to tenerals. Molted, shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals mature physically and sexually before mating high up in treetops and females manipulating eggs into ovipositing sites at 2-plus-yard (1.82-meter) intervals. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish river cruiser members of the Macromiidae cruiser family.

North American swift river cruiser habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, 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, pine, pondweed, rush, sedge, water-lily and willow families promote swift river cruisers.

Brown faces and heads; double-spotted foreheads; green eyes; side-striped yellow-lined brown thoraxes; broken-ringed, brown abdomens with paired triangles and yellow-spotted tips qualify as northern adult hallmarks. Southern adults reveal green eyes on yellow-crossbanded, yellow-spotted black faces; green-black thoraxes with upward-striped fronts and wide-striped sides; yellow-ringed black abdomens with paired triangles and spots. Adults show off 2.56- to 2.76-inch (65- to 79-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.85- to 2.21-inch (47- to 56-millimeter) abdomens and 1.58- to 2.09-inch (40- to 53-millimeter) hindwings.

Small- versus large-spotted, dull versus bright-colored, unclubbed versus clubbed and variable versus same-sized, brown versus black-bodied, front-striped versus none tell females from males, northerners from southerners.

swift river cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) in flight; Monday, Aug. 31, 2015, 14:23:45: 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:

swift river cruiser dragonfly, also known as Illinois River cruiser (Macroma illinoiensis); Conway County, central Arkansas; Friday, July 7, 2006: pondhawk, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38686613@N08/4747956094/

swift river cruiser dragonfly (Macromia illinoiensis) in flight; Monday, Aug. 31, 2015, 14:23:45: Melissa McMasters (cricketsblog), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsblog/21068628835/

For further information:

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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. "Macromia illinoiensis Walsh, 1862: 397 - Swift River Cruiser (syn.) Marcomia australensis Williamson, 1909: 377)." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Anisoptera Selys, 1854 - Dragonflies > Macromiidae, Tillyard, 1917 (River Cruisers) > Macromia Rambur, 1842 (River Crusiers).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

"Macromia illinoiensis." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Anisoptera > Macromiidae > Macromia.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=704

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

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Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5689166
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924106526449?urlappend=%3Bseq=207

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Walsh, Benjamin D. (Dann). "List of the Pseudoneuroptera of Illinois, Contained in the Cabinet of the Writer, With Descriptions of Over Forty New Species, and Notes on Their Structural Affinities: Macromia illinoiensis, n.sp." Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. XIIII: 397-398. Philadelphia PA: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1862.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1951869
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015035553265?urlappend=%3Bseq=409
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/jstor-4059488/4059488#page/n37/mode/1up

Walter Sanford ‏@Geodialist. "Macromia illinoiensis exuvia." Twitter. March 15, 2017.
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