Image of Plateau Spreadwing

Description:

"Plateau Spreadwing (Lestes alacer) -- male and female 28 March 2016 Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center (CCNHC) Denton, Texas Several pairs of Plateau Spreadwings were flying in tandem and ovipositing while several single males flew alone and at times tried interrupting the activity of the mated pairs though mostly they perched alone in the same temporary or seasonal pool of water located to the side of the perimeter trail at the Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center (CCNHC) in Denton, Texas. The behavior of the mating pairs is consistent with what the textbook says since they mostly oviposited above the waterline on the reedy grasses growing in the shallow temporary pool. The females were mostly andromorphs, looking more like the males than not. In the United States according to Odonata Central the distribution of Plateau Spreadwing occurs in ""Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas as far east as the Texan biotic province, [and] south through Mexico to Costa Rica."" Plateau Spreadwing is an authentic resident of North America and the Western Hemisphere. The CCNHC is administered by the City of Denton, Texas. Sources: John C. Abbott, Damselflies of Texas: A Field Guide (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011), 72-73. Note that an abbreviated online copy of Damselflies of Texas: A Field Guide is available for free online in PDF at this location, 147pp.: http://www.odonatacentral.org/docs/texas_damselflies_reduced.pdf ""Plateau Spreadwing,"" Odonata Central, range map, photographs, description, resources, accessed 4.1.16, http://www.odonatacentral.org/index.php/FieldGuideAction.get/id/43788"