Citrine Forktail Damselfly Habitats: Dark, Orange Dots Not on Wing Edge

Summary: North American citrine forktail damselfly habitats get males with black stigmas at hindwing edges and orange-colored cells away from forewing edges.

male citrine forktail damselfly (Ischnura hastata) at Occoquan Regional Park, Lorton, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Friday, July 29, 2016, 11:39: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

North American citrine forktail damselfly habitats abound in arborist-, master gardener- and master naturalist-appreciative, water-ample distribution ranges from Newfoundland through Florida, Ontario, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and California southward through Venezuela.

Citrine forktails bear their common name for citrus fruit-like orange or yellow colors and the scientific name Ischnura hastata (thin tail [and] spear-shaped [male forewing pterostigmata]). Common names channel the consensus of scientific committees of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, whose Bulletin of American Odonatology since 1992 can be consulted on-line. Descriptions in 1839 by Thomas Say (June 27, 1787-Oct. 10, 1834), shell and insect specialist deemed father of American conchology and descriptive entomology, direct scientific designations.

Citrine forktail damselfly lifespans expect fish-filled or fishless, permanent or temporary lakes, ponds, rivers and sphagnum bogs with densely vegetated, marshy margins in grasses and sedges.

January through December function as maximum, most southerly flight seasons even though August furnishes wildlife mapping opportunities for all citrine forktail damselfly habitats, north through south.

Immature female and male citrine forktails go for ground- and near-ground-level perches in dense vegetation immediately along or in shallow bogs, lakes, marshes, ponds and rivers. Heavy vegetation sometimes houses both immature and mature life cycle stages even though adults have higher-profile presences from heading out low and slow as gleaning hunters. Immature stages immobilize bottom-dwelling passers-by within their labium (lower lips) whereas adults imprison airborne, foliage-feeding and ground-level prey as the result of flushing, searching or stalking.

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

Immature citrine forktails keep to dull, faded, light, pale colors and to even lower size ranges than the diminutive dimensions that their bright, mature counterparts know.

Incomplete metamorphosis leads egg-hatched, multi-molting larvae, naiads and nymphs from grasses, sedges, sphagnum and water lilies into maturity as shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying tenerals of impermanent colors. Adults mate for about 20 minutes anytime during the day, until just after dark, with only females subsequently manipulating eggs into floating, upright leaves and stems. Forktail 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 citrine forktail damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 to 4.44 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 citrine forktails.

Gray-banded, gray-powdered black abdomens, black thoraxes with gray upper and white lower sides, black-banded, brown-capped green eyes and clear, dot-tipped wings qualify as adult female hallmarks. Males reveal black hindwing and orange forewing stigmas (colored cells), black- and green-striped thoraxes, black-capped eyes greening posteriorly and yellowing frontally and black-ringed, green-based yellow abdomens. Adults show off 0.83- to 1.06-inch (21- to 27-millimeter) head-body lengths, 0.63- to 0.87-inch (16- to 22-millimeter) abdomens and 0.35- to 0.59-inch (9- to 15-millimeter) hindwings.

Smaller sizes, sparser blacks and grays and stigmas away from male wing edges tell citrines from other forktails in overlapping North American citrine forktail damselfly habitats.

Immature female citrine forktails appear as orange to red and change coloring, through brown or olive to gray, as they mature; immature female citrine forktail damselfly at Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Folkston, Charlton County, southernmost Georgia; Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, 14:25: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

citrine forktail damselfly (Ischnura hastata) at Occoquan Regional Park, Lorton, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Friday, July 29, 2016, 11:39: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citrine_Forktail_-_Ischnura_hastata,_Occoquan_Regional_Park,_Lorton,_Virginia_-_28563990141.jpg; Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/28563990141/

Immature female citrine forktails appear as orange to red and change coloring, through brown or olive to gray, as they mature; immature female citrine forktail damselfly at Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Folkston, Charleston County, southernmost Georgia; Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012, 14:25: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citrine_Forktail_(immature_female)_-_Ischnura_hastata,_Okeefenokee_National_Wildlife_Refuge,_Folkston,_Georgia_-_12562875314.jpg; Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/12562875314/

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. "Ischnura hastata (Say, 1839: 38 as Agrion) -- Citrine Forktail -- Craves & O'Brien 2002." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Zygoptera Selys, 1854 > Coenagrionidae, Kirby, 1890 (Pond Damselflies) > Ischnura Charpentier, 1840 (Forktails).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

"Ischnura hastata." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Coenagrionidae > Ischnura.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=3376

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

Say, Thomas. "Descriptions of New North American Neuropterous Insects, and Observations on Some Already Described. Read July 12, 1836: 2. A. hastata." Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: vol. VIII, part I: 38-39. Philadelphia PA: Merrihew and Thompson, 1839.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24622989
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106432990?urlappend=%3Bseq=48

"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/