Thursday, May 12, 2016

Black Spreadwing - Lestes stultus

Damselflies are tough for a beginner like me, as the difference in the species are often subtle. Identification best performed by examination of a specimen "in hand", but sometimes a digi-scoped view gets me close enough to see some subtle features.

Most damselfly species rest with their wings folded near the body, but the Spreadwings (family Lestidae) usually perch or hang with wings in an open position. Here is what I believe is a male Black Spreadwing, Lestes stultus, one of many seen at Nagasawa Community Park in Santa Rosa, California. Photos are from a visit on May 10, 2016.


The male above has started to briefly fold the wings. The sexual appendages at the end of the abdomen are curved inward, with the cerci above framing a window showing the the club-shaped paraprocts below. Here the paraprocts are reflecting white, but in fact are black. Note the black panel near the ends of the wings, the pterostigma, here with a narrow white border.

 

This was the only time I saw this spreadwing with the wings folded, albeit briefly. The head and thorax have a hint of purple iridescence.


A crop of another view shows a bit more detail in the appendages:


Many of the 20+ Black Spreadwings gathered near a small ponded area in the center of the swale, most either in tandem or in the wheel position, as here. The abdomen segments near the end of the male are flexed sharply forward, allowing him to grasp the female just behind the head in an area that I believe is called the prothorax. The female's entire abdomen is curled forward to complete the wheel (or "ring"), allowing her to receive the sperm stored in secondary genitalia of the male on the undersurface of segment 2.


Cropped view of the male grasping the female, showing how the appendages have spread apart to firmly grasp the prothorax.

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