Photo: Eastern Amberwing, Judy Gallagher
Judy Gallagher is an ASNV board member and a regular surveyor of local wildlife who also captures photos of what she sees, in particular the less common species.
I'm often asked to name my favorite insect. There are so many interesting insects and spiders that it's hard to choose just one, but when pressed, I usually select dragonflies. They are impressive aerial acrobats, rotating each of their wings independently. This allows them to hover, fly backwards, and so on. Some dragonflies can fly as fast as 34 miles per hour. And they eat mosquitoes. What's not to love?
One of my favorite dragonflies is the tiny Eastern Amberwing. At about 0.9 inches long, it's not the smallest dragonfly in our area. That honor belongs to the Elfin Skimmer, but the Eastern Amberwing is the littlest commonly seen local dragonfly. It is descriptively called Eastern Amberwing as it is amber colored, and it is most common in the eastern United States, although it is sometimes found as far west as Arizona.
Eastern Amberwing caught in spider web, Judy Gallagher
The Eastern Amberwing looks rather like a wasp. It has yellow and brown stripes on its abdomen, and when perched, it wiggles its wings and abdomen like a wasp to deter predation. This is an effective defense plan but it doesn't always work. This Eastern Amberwing female has been captured by a Yellow and Black Garden Spider. Note the eggs on the end of her abdomen. Dragonflies sometimes spontaneously release their eggs when threatened, a helpful strategy when captured over water, but not so useful in this circumstance.
Male Eastern Amberwing, Judy Gallagher
Male Eastern Amberwings have orange or amber wings with red pterostigmas (pigmented spots on the leading edge of the wing).
Female Eastern Amberwing, Judy Gallagher
Females have clear wings with black and amber patches. They also have red pterostigmas.
Adults eat a variety of small insects, including tiny bees, flower flies, mosquitoes and midges. You're most likely to see one at a pond or lake, perching on low vegetation along the shore or flying and hovering close to the water's surface.
Eastern Amberwing female perching on a flower, Judy Gallagher
But you also can find them, especially females, some distance away from water, sometimes resting on tall flowers. Females often stay away from water until they are ready to mate.
Eastern Amberwing courtship , Judy Gallagher
Eastern Amberwings have unusual courtship rituals. The male selects several sites suitable for egg-laying. He defends them from other males, even grabbing them to drag them away. He ignores bigger dragonflies, but will attack other insects that are about his size. Having defended his territory, he then flies off to find a female and escorts her back to his preferred spot. He sways back and forth over the potential site, sometimes hovering with his abdomen raised.
Eastern Amberwings mating, Judy Gallagher
If the female approves, they mate, usually on a perch as shown here. This is one of the few dragonflies where the female chooses the male. For those of you that aren't familiar with dragonfly mating, this position is called the "wheel" position, but I romantically think the union of their bodies looks like a heart.
Eastern Amberwing female laying eggs while male guards her, Judy Gallagher
The female then lays her eggs, releasing 10 or more eggs each time she dips her abdomen into the water. As seen here, the male often guards her to prevent another unscrupulous male Amberwing from scooping out the first Amberwing's sperm and then mating with the female.
The eggs disperse in the water, and the aquatic larvae hatch, spending their larval lives underwater feeding on aquatic invertebrates. Unlike many other dragonfly larvae, which are more specialized, Amberwing larvae hunt at any depth in their aquatic habitat. They molt several times and eventually leave the water and molt into a winged adult.
On warm days, Eastern Amberwings will "obelisk," pointing their abdomen toward the sun. This minimizes the amount of surface area exposed to the sun.
These lovely creatures only live for about a year, and the majority of that is as an aquatic nymph. By late September, the adults will mostly be gone from our area. So please go out and find one of these lovely jewels while you still can.
View more of Judy’s Observations from Meadowood articles here.