Species Spotlight: Emma's Dancer

In the spotlight today is a beautifully-colored damselfly—Emma's Dancer. As with other dancers, this damselfly holds its wing above the abdomen when perched. In addition, it has a lovely lavender color on the thorax. Most of the abdomen is also lavender, with a contrasting blue tip.

Here's a male from Lower Crab Creek near Beverly, WA on the Columbia River:



Before finding this species at Lower Crab Creek, we had seen it only a couple times before near Bend, OR; in those cases, however, we generally saw just a single individual. At Crab Creek, they were the most numerous damselfly.

Here's another male, with a bit different lighting showing off the lavender color:



A final male, with even different lighting. It shows the range of colors observed in this species:



We saw lots of females at Crab Creek as well. Here's a male and female in tandem preparing to lay eggs:



Here's a close up of the female. Notice her light brown color, and light stigmas. In addition, the ovipositor is clearly visible at the tip of the abdomen—all damselflies use ovipositors, but many dragonflies use an egg scoop instead, and just drop their eggs in the water.



The next female has her hindwings spread open, and her abdomen bent, as she fends off the advances of a male:



One final look at the female, showing her wings held well above the abdomen:



This is a species that can be locally numerous, but is not particularly widespread.