American Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly Habitats: Black Wings, Green Bodies

Summary: Only North American ebony jewelwing damselfly habitats from the Great Plains east through Canada and the United States yield black wings and green bodies.

left: female ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) near Oxford, Ohio; Sunday, June 18, 2006, 11:58: Greg5030 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 Generic, via Wikipedia Commons
right: male ebony jewelwing in Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada; Friday, July 8, 2011, 13:24: D. Gordon E. Robertson (Dger), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American ebony jewelwing damselfly habitats abet and abut arboriculture, master gardening, master naturalism and tree stewardship through wet woodland distribution ranges from the Plains eastward through Canada and the United States.

Ebony jewelwings bear their common name for black, bold-patterned, cross-veined, iridescent wings and the scientific name Calopteryx maculata (beautiful wing spotted [with white at female wingtips]). Common names for ebony jewelwings, also called black-winged damselflies, come from the consensus of a committee of scientists convened by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas. Scientific designations defer to descriptions by Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot, Baron de Beauvois (July 27, 1752-Jan. 21, 1820) and naturalist from Arras, France, in 1805.

Afternoon-mating, morning-perching, night-roosting adults, like their predecessor egg, naiad and nymph stages, expect clean, sandy-bottomed, shaded, small forest streams and clear, exposed woodland creeks and rivulets.

February through December function as maximum, most southerly flight seasons even though May through September furnish wildlife mapping opportunities in eastern Canada and the United States.

Adult male ebony jewelwing damselflies get, before females, to territories, that they guard for eight days, with perch-, mating-, egg-depositing-friendly emergent, floating, streamside and submergent vegetation. They hone white subabdominal tip-showing, wing-fluttering courtship displays before hiking along female white stigma-spotted wingtips, wing edges and prothoraxes for a few minutes of tandem mating. Mothers-to-be optimally implant seven to ten eggs per minute for lifetime maximum theoretical totals of 1,800 eggs during 10- to 120-minute oviposits into logs or plants.

Bats, blackbirds, blue jays, bluegill, carp, channel catfish, flycatchers, frogs, hogsuckers, large-mouth bass, mallards, robins, turtles and yellow perch jeopardize North American ebony jewelwing damselfly habitats.

Immature ebony jewelwing damselflies keep to dull, faded, non-iridescent colors during their 11-day life cycle stages and know light brown bodies and eyes and pale wings.

Ebony jewelwing nymphs let flow rate, vegetation type and water depth lead them to more quietly running streams and to slower creeks located near hatching places. Immature and mature females and males manage wing-clapping by moving wings slowly open and suddenly shut for blood circulation, mating-related communication, oxygen intake and temperature regulation. Caloptrygidae broad-winged damselfly family members need caddisflies, crane-flies, dobsonflies, dogwood borers, fungus gnats, giant willow aphids, great diving beetles, six-spotted tiger beetles, tiger mosquitoes and water-fleas.

North American ebony jewelwing damselfly habitats offer season-coldest temperatures from minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius) to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34.44 degrees Celsius).

Algae, black willow, bladderwort, brandy-bottle, buttonbush, cattail, duckweed, grape, greenbrier, hydrilla, lizard's-tail, orange jewelweed, pickerelweed, poison ivy, sassafras, spotted Joe-pyeweed and tussock sedge protect ebony jewelwings.

Bronze bodies, brown eyes, dark, long legs with fly-catching, long, sharp spines and dusky wings with dark, white stigma-spotted tips and paler bases quicken female identifications. Dark brown eyes, iridescent metallic blue-green to green bodies without white stigma, jet-black long legs with long, sharp spines and matte-black wings reveal wide-winged adult males. Adults showcase 1.46- to 2.24-inch (37- to 57-millimeter) total head-body lengths, 1.18- to 1.85-inch (30- to 47-millimeter) abdomens and 0.98- to 1.06-inch (25- to 27-millimeter) hindwings.

Dark abdomens, dark wingtips and see-through wings respectively tell on similar-looking smoky rubyspots, river jewelwings and sparkling jewelwings in overlapping North American ebony jewelwing damselfly habitats.

Female ebony jewelwing damselfy (Calopteryx maculata) deposits eggs into slits in water plants made by her ovipositor; Neely Farm, Simpsonville, southern Greenville County, northwestern (Upstate) South Carolina; Friday, June 7, 2013, 14:55:26: David Hill (platycryptus), 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:

left: female ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) near Oxford, Ohio; Sunday, June 18, 2006, 11:58: Greg5030 at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 Generic, via Wikipedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jewelwing.jpg
right: male ebony jewelwing in Gatineau Park, Quebec, Canada; Friday, July 8, 2011, 13:24: D. Gordon E. Robertson (Dger), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ebony_Jewelwing,_male,_Gatineau_Park.jpg

Female ebony jewelwing damselfy (Calopteryx maculata) deposits eggs into slits in water plants made by her ovipositor; Neely Farm, Simpsonville, southern Greenville County, northwestern (Upstate) South Carolina; Friday, June 7, 2013, 14:55:26: David Hill (platycryptus), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/dehill/8981785223/

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.

Beauvois, Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot de. "Agrion maculata." Insectes Recueillis en Afrique et en Amérique: 85. Paris, France: Fain et Compagnie, An XIII (1805).
Available via Linda Hall Digital Library Collection @ http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/nat_hist/id/1443
Available via Teylers Museum @ http://217.105.198.154/Digital_Library/Emags/Lade_4c_82/index.html#/81/

Berger, Cynthia. Dragonflies. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books: Wild Guide, 2004.

Bright, Ethan. "Calopteryx maculata (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805: 85 as Agrion) -- Ebony Jewelwing." Aquatic Insects of Michigan > Odonata (Dragon- and Damselflies) of Michigan > Zygoptera, Selys, 1854 > Calopterygidae, Selys, 1850 (Broadwinged Damselflies) > Calopteryx Leach, 1815 (Jewelwings).
Available @ http://www.aquaticinsects.org/sp/Odonata/sp_oom.html

"Calopteryx maculata." James Cook University-Medusa: The Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies > Zygoptera > Calopterygidae > Calopteryx.
Available via James Cook University-Medusa @ https://medusa.jcu.edu.au/Dragonflies/openset/displaySpecies.php?spid=2929

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

"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/