17 July 2024

Bug season brings pests but also beauty. One of my favorites is this delicate damselfly, the ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), named for the males’ black wings with metallic blue-green edges. Their bodies are shiny blue-green, too.

The females are less flashy, darkly colored with white spots at the tips of the wings. When a female flies in the forest gloom the white tips are all you see.

Ebony jewelwings prefer wooded habitats near creeks and streams where they flit from leaf to leaf. In early July in Frick Park we saw males and females courting and jostling for territory. When they mate they form a heart shape with their bodies.

Damselflies, like dragonflies, are carnivorous. The adults take insects from the air; nymphs take them in the water.

Watch the jewelwings fly and mate and two females lay eggs in the stream in this video from Canada. I love how they flash open their wings.