Image of Halloween Pennant

Description:

20 July 2014: Observed a pair of Halloween Pennants (Celithemis eponina) in the wheel formation at North Lakes Park, Denton, Texas. North Lakes Park has two lakes, one north and south each of Windsor Drive; this observation occurred in the north lake. Halloween Pennant’s northernmost range is the south of Canada but the bulk of its range occurs in the eastern half of the United States and especially east of the Rocky Mountains. In Florida, for example, Halloween Pennants are known to fly from January through December. In terms of their southernmost range, Halloween Pennants may be found in Central America (Odonata Central, Wikipedia). While that may be the case, Halloween Pennant also occurs in Mexico’s northeastern region bordering with Texas. According to Douglas R. Paulson and Enrique González Soriano whose online distribution list of Mexican Odonata, “Odonata of Mexico, By State” (hosted by the University of Puget Sound’s Slater Museum of Natural History), Halloween Pennant is found in three of the country’s 31 states including the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. Animal Diversity Web claims that Halloween Pennant ranges as far north as Nebraska in the United States, and from Massachusetts to Florida, on the East Coast. John C. Abbott’s, Dragonflies of Texas: A Field Guide (University of Texas Press, 2015) notes that Halloween Pennant is common throughout the state with the exception of far West Texas and the westernmost part of the state’s Panhandle. And his range map has it extending into Mexico’s northeastern states cited by Paulson and González Soriano. Abbott notes that Halloween Pennant flies in Texas from April through early November with its strongest presence occurring during the peak summer months of July and August. The sum of the various views regarding its range affirms that Halloween Pennant is a widespread dragonfly whose range extends from North America to Central America. Mexico, United States and Canada comprise the larger share of its range but its presence in undisclosed areas (per the sources consulted) of Central America is notable. There are two best ways to distinguish the male and female of the species: 1) by the color of their respective pterostigma and 2) by the color of the dorsal spots on their otherwise dorsally black colored abdomen. The male of the species has red pterostigma while the female’s pterostigma are a pale cream color. Likewise, the male’s abdomen dorsally is characterized by red to orange colored spots, while the female’s abdomen features yellow spots. Halloween Pennant is an American dragonfly in the widest sense of the word because its range occurs in North America and Central America. The largest extent of its distribution occurs in the continental United States. North Lakes Park is administered by the City of Denton, Texas.