American Rubyspot - Hetaerina americana

Exploring Bear Valley Creek (Colusa County) with the able guiding of Leslie Flint, we quickly came upon one of our targets for the day, the American Rubyspot, Hetaerina americana. These good-sized damselflies (about 1.75" long) are as big as some dragonflies, and their colorful broad wings make them easy to spot. They prefer streams and rivers with emergent vegetation, and have been seen in all lower 48 states except WA and ID.

The individuals we saw first were females, with purple-brown abdomen, light stripes on the thorax and a striking purple on the face and eyes. If you don't like Rubyspots then you definitely don't like dragonflies, because they don't come much prettier. The female has color all along the front of her wings, whereas the male (to follow) has large dark red spots at the base of the wings. Both are show-stoppers.

Recently I wrote about the Pond Damsels, a.k.a. Narrow-winged Damsels, a big family. The Rubyspots belong to a smaller family, the Broad-winged Damsels, a.k.a. Demoiselles. The scientific name for the family is Calopterygidae, which means "beautiful wings". (Botany fans no doubt remember that Calochortus means "beautiful hair".) I haven't seen Rubyspots in the immediate Bay Area, but we did see them on a trip to Pine Flat Road with Kathy Biggs, where they were found along the Russian River (Alexander Valley).

Now for the male:

The male American Rubyspot is difficult to describe, as the experience of viewing one is more visceral than one might expect from watching a perched insect. These photos don't capture the intense ruby color of the spot on the inner wing, but that's good, as it allows the eye to better see the rest of his finery. The male lacks the pterostigma (a.k.a. "stigma") so often seen in dragonflies along the outer leading edge of the wing. The female Rubyspot usually shows a small white stigma, although not obvious in the ones I photographed.

Another view:

So, just for review, damselflies, suborder Zygoptera, are small to medium-sized odonates whose eyes are separated and often look like they are on stalks. In dragonflies the eyes are bigger and often touch in the midline. Damsels usually have comparatively thinner abdomens, and their forward and rear wings are similar, whereas dragonflies are often stouter, and the forward wings differ in shape from the rear (that's what Anisoptera literally means). Damsels usually keep their wings folded together when perched, either above the body as in the Rubyspot, or alongside the body. The Spreadwing family of damsels is the exception, you would guess from their name.

Taxonomy: 

Order: Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies

Suborder: Zygoptera - Damselflies (5 families: Jewelwings, Spreadwings, Shadowdamsels, Threadtails and Pond Damsels.

Family: Calopterygidae - Broad-winged Damsels, or Demoiselles (Jewelwings). Demoiselle was old french for a young woman, or a "damsel". Here in the U.S. we find the Jewelwings (5) and the Rubyspots (3) to represent the family. But there are 3 other genera of Broad-wings seen elsewhere.

Genus: Hetaerina - Rubyspots. They are mostly tropical, with 37 species. 3 are seen in the U.S. - the other 2 are the Canyon Rubyspot and Smoky Rubyspot.

Species: Hetaerina americana - American Rubyspot. Maybe we should nominate this species as our "national dragonfly", or should we wait until it's recorded in WA and ID?

Desert Firetail - Telebasis salva

Seen yesterday along Bear Valley Creek, Colusa County, CA (jct. Rte 20 and 16), on a fabulous day outing with our friend Leslie Flint.

The Desert Firetail is a tiny slender damselfly that ranges across the southwest from Texas to California and all the way south to Venezuela. The brilliant red of the male contrasts with the soft brown of the female. Their flight season in the U.S. is from March to Dec, but will vary by area. After mating they remain in tandem while she deposits the eggs on surface vegetation of warm ponds or creeks (duckweed, algae, etc.). Once you change your search image to "tiny" the red body of the male stands out well against the green vegetation (pond scum), even in flight. Beautiful creature, described as "elegant" by Tim Manolis.

We watched a group of Firetails ovipositing on an algal mass in a quiet area of the creek. 3-4 linked pairs were with a few inches of each other. The male didn't have to fly, as the female methodically flexed her abdomen down into the scum and pumped out her eggs, moving only occasionally. A video I took sort of shows the action, fwiw: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenblumin/9625255522/

Taxonomy (I need this more than most of you!):

Order - Odonata - Dragonflies and Damselflies (over 5,000 species, with 450+ in North America)

Suborder - Zygoptera - The Damselflies - 22 families.

Family - Coenagrionidae - The Narrow-winged Damsels, or "Pond Damsels". This is a big family, with about 31 species in California alone. Included here are the Bluets, Dancers, Forktails and Firetails. The other main families seen here are the Broad-winged Damsels, Calopterygidae, where you'll find the Jewelwings and Rubyspots, and the Spread-winged Damsels, Lestidae.

Genus - Telebasis - The Firetails. Only 3 Firetail sp. are seen in the western U.S., and only one in California, but there are more than 50 other Firetail species found in the tropics. Most are red, but a few are blue.

Flame Skimmer - Libellula saturata

The Flame Skimmer is a large red-orange dragonfly that is common around warm ponds in the west. It ranges from Texas to California, and north into Oregon and Idaho. In our area there is really no other dragonfly like it, with its red eyes, orange inner wings, and orange just about everywhere else, including face, thorax, abdomen and legs! The males compete to occupy favored perches near the water, but they are often seen away from the water, and forage over wide areas.

The first photo shows a pale young (teneral) damselfly , which I didn't really notice until I viewed the photo on the computer. The Flame Skimmer looks like a monster next to the damsel, which may be a bluet sp. (thanks, Leslie). Taken at the pond in Tiburon.

Second photo shows some dark spots on the inner wings. From a Del Puerto Canyon trip led by Leslie Flint.

Last photo, also from Del Puerto, shows an appendage hanging near the last abdominal segment, and is probably the "epiproct", an unpaired structure seen in some male dragonflies, but apparently unrelated to sexual function. Or maybe it is just a fecal pellet!

These are all males. The female Flame Skimmer is browner. After fertilization she does the ovipositing by herself, similar to the Blue-eyed Darner.