Description: Small racket-tailed skimmer with pale-spotted thorax.
Males: Abdomen with S7-9 making wide, flattened club. Eyes blue; face dark brown, metallic black above. Thorax dark brown with pair of ivory to bluish-white triangular spots on front and four irregular spots on same color on each side.Abdomen black with paired rows of pale bluish streaks and apots becoming increasingly smaller, tiny on S5-6; large triangular to squarish pair on S7. In some but not all males, entire top of abdomen form S6 to S9 becomes whitish pruinose.
Females: Eyes blue; face brown. Patterned more or less like male, but spots on front of thorax less well-defined and narrower, extended forward in long points. Abdomen thicker overall with less well-developed club. Forewing tips brown (Paulson, 2009).
Size: Total length: 40-43mm; hindwing: 29-32 mm.
Similar Species: Blue eyes, incessant flight over water, and hanging up habits like co-occuring Clubskimmers, but much smaller with darker, pale-spotted thorax. Males with pruinose abdomen unmistakable. Ivory-striped has prominent pale spots on S6 as well as S7; Jade-striped has stripes rather than spots on front and sides of thorax. Very different from Straw-colored Sylph.
Habitat: Clear rivers and large streams with some current, usually rocky. In open or forested country.
Natural History: Males fly short beats up down at about knee height over pools, even isolated ones, in streams; perch on leaves or rocks. No differences detected in spotted and white-tailed individuals. Females not often seen, likely to be hanging up in nearby shrubs and trees. Both sexes feed in slow back-and-forth cruising flight, typically from waist to head height, over clearings near breeding habit.
Distribution: USA: Arizona and Texas. Mexico to Ecuador and Brazil.
Source:
Paulson, D. 2009. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton University Press. 536 pp.
Edited by Juan Cruzado (03/13/2017)
