Saturday, June 2, 2012

A New Damselfly

On our way home from Arizona, Betsy and I stopped at the Black River outside Olympia to see if there might be any early River Jewelwings out and about.  There weren't.  However, we did see another interesting damselfly.

First, Betsy saw a female, which was deep reddish orange.  It looked like an immature forktail, since they are often an orangish color, but not one that was familiar to me.  A short time later we saw a male, which was clearly a new forktail for us.  It was the Swift Forktail.

Here's the male.  Notice the long blue tip at the end of its abdomen.  Also, this forktail prominently displays the "forked tail" that gives the group its name.

Swift Forktail, male.


The female almost looks red from a distance.  It has the same structure of thorax stripes as the male.

Swift Forktail, female.

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