Description: Long-legged green darner with blue-spotted abdomen and no markings on front. Legs especially long.
Males: Eyes blue to blue-green. Mouthparts and face green. Thorax and the first two abdominal segments green; rest of abdomen brown, reddish-brown at tip, with large blue spots on S3-9, two pairs of spots above and below on middle segments. Wings hyaline, pterostigma light brown.
Females: Mouthparts light brown. Prothorax dark brown, synthorax and S1-2 pale green. Abdomen colored as male, blue abdomen spots slightly more extensive.
Size: Total length: 65-74mm; hindwing: 43-46mm.
Similar Species: Much like Comet Darner, with long legs and no marking on top of frons. Both sex differ from that species in blue-spotted brown abdomen, looks a bit more orange at tip. Females more similar, but abdomen of Comet still looks more reddish, with pale spots less distinct. Male has strong yellow wash in middle of each hindwing, lacking in Comet. Amazon and Common Green Darners also show this wash but have all blue, all violet, or white-spotted abdomens.
Habitat: A. concolor is found on temporary pools in shell ridges. The water is clear, calcareous, the bottom overgrown with Chara-algae, the borders covered with a vegetation of Heleocharis, Paspalum and some Cyperaceae. On the other hand the species is also found on pools in the white sand savannas. with oligotrophic water. In both environments imagines and larvae are found. Imagines fly in the daytime mostly over the water, males often in search of females along the vegetation of the border.
Natural History: It is frequent to see them near the water. Males fly along or off shore, cruising long distances in larger bodies of water but easily watched at length in small ones. The flight is low in height below the chest. Females oviposit in emergent vegetation at water surface, may come to water is nome numbers when males not present.
Distribution: USA, Only known from Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. Mexico to Argentina.
Source:
Geijskes, D.C. 1968. Anax longipes versus Anax concolor. Notes on Odonata of Suriname X. Stud. Fauna Suriname & other Guyanas 10: 67–100.
Paulson, D. 2005. Anax concolor, a new species for the United States. Argia. 17 (3): 26- 27.
Paulson, D. 2009. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton University Press. 536 pp.
Edited by Juan Cruzado (02/12/2017)
