One thing that I’m really enjoying about the new place is that I’ve seen several species of damselfly in the backyard in the little more than a year that we’ve been here. The old place had lots of dragon- and butterflies but, perhaps because there was no backyard pool, there were no damselflies, at least that I recall.
So far I’ve seen a couple of species of Forktail (Ischnura ramburii and I. hastata), a sprite or two (Nehalennia pallidula), a bluet (Enallagma sp., probably doubledayi) and an unidentified spreadwing species (“documented” by perhaps the worst photo I’ve ever taken).
Today I saw a third forktail species, Ischnura posita, the Fragile Forktail. The male is a very handsome fellow, with stunning green eyes (black on top), a black thorax marked by two interrupted stripes (Dunkle characterizes them as “a a pair of upside-down exclamation marks”), and a long, mostly black abdomen with most segments marked by green rings right where it meets its neighbor:
I’ve been hoping to catch a glimpse of this fellow for quite some time; ever since I got my two damselfly guides this year (the 2011 Paulson guide to Eastern dragon- and damselflies, and the 1990 Dunkle guide to Florida damselflies). It’s just a very good-looking bug!
Here’s another angle for those of you who can’t quite get enough of him:
Look around your yard; see what you find!