band-winged meadowhawk

Band-winged meadowhawk is a small dragonfly.

The face is yellow to brown.

The thorax is brown and is covered with brown hairs.

On juveniles the abdomen is dark brown with a black lateral stripe on each side. On mature males it is red. Females appear in two forms. On red form females the abdomen is red. On yellow form females it is whitish-yellow. All mature individuals have a black triangular marking on each side of each abdominal segment which, taken together, form a jagged, black line.

The inner third of the forewing is amber. The inner half of the hindwing, from the point of attachment to the wing notch (nodus) is amber. All of the wing veins are black. In males and most females, the outer portion of the amber area on the hindwing is darkened, forming a band. The outer portion of both wings is clear except for the dark stigma on the leading edge of each wing.

The legs are black.

On the eastern form band-winged meadowhawk (S. s. semicinctum) each wing is amber from the base to the node. On the hindwings, it darkens in the outer region becoming a dark brown nodal band. The thorax is brown. On the western form band-winged meadowhawk (S. s. occidentale) all wings have diffuse amber coloring from the base to the node. The thorax is yellow to brown and there are narrow black lines on the side in the form of an irregular W. Eastern form band-winged meadowhawk lacks these markings. Both forms occur in Minnesota.

Total length: ⅞″ to 13 ⁄16″

Saffron-winged meadowhawk (Sympetrum costiferum) veins within the amber wing patch are reddish or orange, not black.

Small ponds, shallow marshes.

Late June to late September

Eggs are laid among plants emerging from the water at the edges of ponds and in marshes while the female is still in tandem with the male.

Sources

4, 7, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Uncommon or locally common

Western meadowhawk was formerly considered as a separate species, Sympetrum occidentale. A recent molecular and morphological study (Dohlen, 2007) showed that the two species are identical at two genetic loci and that the morphological characters used to distinguish them overlapped. However, the geographic variation is both distinct and predictable. For that reason, the subspecies names have been preserved.