Cyrano Darner Dragonfly Habitats: Big Foreheads, L and Zigzag Marks

Summary: North American cyrano darner dragonfly habitats get big foreheads, fly-by feeding on-the-go, fluttery wings and L- and zigzag-marked brown-green bodies.

cyrano darner dragonfly (Nasiaeschna pentacantha); Glades Wildlife Refuge, southern Cumberland County, New Jersey: Natural Lands @natlands, via Twitter June 23, 2017

North American cyrano darner dragonfly habitats anticipate naturalists, not cultivators, in wet woodland distribution ranges from Nova Scotia through Florida, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and everywhere in-between.

Cyrano darners bear their common name for Cyrano de Bergerac nose-like long foreheads and knitting needle-like abdomens and the scientific name Nasiaeschna pentacantha (nasal, five-spined spear). The common name commemorates Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (March 6, 1619-July 28, 1655), real-life character in Edmond Rostand's (April 1, 1868-Dec. 2, 1918) 1897-released play. Scientific designations defer to descriptions in 1842 by Jules Pierre Rambur (July 21, 1801-Aug. 10, 1870), author of Histoire Naturelle des Insectes (Natural History of Insects).

Cyrano darner life cycles expect blackwater, sheltered, slow-flowing, swampy lake coves, ponds, pools, rivers and streams with forest edges, overhanging branches, shrubby borders and water-soaked logs.

January through December function as earliest to latest flight seasons even though June and July furnish wildlife mapping opportunities throughout cyrano darner coastal and inland niches.

Cyrano darners glean flushed and stalked invertebrate prey from low-lying vegetation and go to higher perches for time-consuming consumption of clubtail dragonflies and other large invertebrates. They hunt slowly over shaded, sodden stumps and trunks up to 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) above water-lilies and through branches over water bodies morning to dusk. Patrols involve ignoring forest and woodland clearings and mixed- and single-species feeding swarms, inclining flickering, fluttering, semi-curved wings to the horizontal and intercepting competitive, hostile intruders.

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

Immature cyrano darners keep to dull, faded, light, pale woodland brown colors and low size ranges and know protruding sticks as homes in woody hatching places.

Incomplete metamorphosis leads cyrano darners from egg-hatched, multi-molting, nonflying larval, naiad or nymph immaturity to molted, recently emerged, shiny-winged, soft-bodied, weak-flying teneral and matured adult stages. Tenerals maintain bluish protruding foreheads, bulky, stocky thoraxes, clear, slender wings, rear-tapering abdomens and short claspers upon maturing physically and sexually away from water and mating. Aphids, beetles, borers, caddisflies, copepods, crane flies, dobsonflies, gnats, leafhoppers, mosquitoes, rotifers, scuds, water fleas and worms nourish cyrano darner members of the Aeshnidae dragonfly family.

North American cyrano darner dragonfly habitats offer season-coldest temperature ranges, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 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 cyrano darners.

Cylindrical, egg-thickened versus rear-tapering abdomens, nonfunctional versus functional short claspers and short versus nonexistent ovipositors for plant tissue-insertable egg-laying qualify as adult female versus male hallmarks. Adults reveal blue eyes, blue-green-yellow faces, brown thoraxes with one each of interrupted, wide, zigzag side, narrow, straight side and shoulder stripes and green-striped brown abdomens. Adults show off 2.44- to 2.87-inch (62- to 73-millimeter) head-body lengths, 1.85- to 2.16-inch (47- to 55-millimeter) abdomens and 1.77- to 1.07-inch (45- to 50-millimeter) hindwings.

Brown-and-green, L- and zigzag-marked thoraxes, fluttery patrols, fly-by vegetation-snatching predation and protruding foreheads tell cyrano darners from other odonates in North American cyrano darner dragonfly habitats.

closeup of head and thorax of cyrano darner dragonfly (Nasiaeschna pentacantha); photo by Jonathan White: FotoPhysis @Fotophysis, via Twitter Aug. 9, 2017

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

cyrano darner dragonfly (Nasiaeschna pentacantha); Glades Wildlife Refuge, southern Cumberland County, New Jersey: Natural Lands @natlands, via Twitter June 23, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/natlands/status/878244352601899008

closeup of head and thorax of cyrano darner dragonfly (Nasiaeschna pentacantha); photo by Jonathan White: FotoPhysis @Fotophysis, via Twitter Aug. 9, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/Fotophysis/status/895439795698126848

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Natural Lands ‏@natlands. "Glades Wildlife Refuge manager Brian Johnson took this on-the-wing shot. This is the first Cyrano Darner he's seen at our NJ preserves!" Twitter. June 23, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/natlands/status/878244352601899008

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