Lestes sponsa
Lestes sponsa (Hansemann, 1823)
Local names: Common spreadwing, Gemeine Binsenjungfer, Gewone pantserjuffer, Leste fiancé, Pudrad smaragdflickslända
Species Information
Description
The most widespread and numerous Lestes in many areas, probably due to less partial to ephemeral habitats. This damselfly is metallic green in colour with light blue pruinosity in male adults. It is very similar to Lestes dryas and it is difficult to distinguish them at first sight, though L. dryas is usually more robust. In females the distinctive characters are a couple of spots forming a sort of semicircle on the first abdominal segment, S1, while on L. dryas the spots are rectangular. The ovipositor does not extend beyond S10 on L. sponsa, while on L. dryas it does extend beyond S10. The pronotum is metallic in colour on L. sponsa.
The males have the first and second segments with light blue pruinosity, while in L. dryas they are only partly blue. The lower appendages are unique, long and straight, with narrow tips. On L. dryas they are curved and have enlarged tips.
In immature individuals of both sexes, the pterostigmas are whitish and get darker until becoming brown or blackish.
Separated from L. barbarus and L. virens by the dark underside of the head, dark pterostigma (when mature) and more extensive pruinosity. Chalcolestes parvidens and C. viridis lack pruinosity, have whitish appendages, a larger and paler pterostigma and a diagnostic thorax marking. L. macrostigma has a larger pterostigma and a darker more pruinose body with almost no hint of green.
Size
Habitat
Lestes sponsa inhabits a wide range of standing, largely unshaded waters with emergent vegetation, including ditches, ponds, lakes and peat bogs. This includes both permanent and temporary waters and waters that are acidic, alkaline or brackish. It can be numerous at newly created shallow habitats but most often occurs at well-vegetated waters. Lestes sponsa has a wide altitudinal range and reproduces from sea level up to 2 500 m.
Distribution
Lestes sponsa is found from western Europe to Japan and is generally common within its range. It is common and widespread throughout Europe with the exception of the Mediterranean and northern Fennoscandia. It is rare on the MEditerranean coasts and is often confined to higher altitudes in the south of its range.
Flight Period
May to September
Behavior
After mating, the female, in tandem with the male, lay eggs in the tissues of water plants, starting from the emerged part and ending in submerged part, even submerging herself completely in the process.
Conservation Status
Similar Species
Lestes dryas, Lestes virens, Lestes barbarus
External Links
Genus: Lestes
Lestes, or Spreadwings or Emerald Damselflies, is a genus of damselflies in the family Lestidae. The family hold their wings at about 45 degrees to the body when resting. This distinguishes them from most other species of damselflies which hold the wings along, and parallel to, the body when at rest.
Identification
Lestes damselflies are mostly metallic green and have partly pruinose bodies, large pterostigma and perch with wings spread, hence the name Spreadwings. Teneral individuals may perch with wings folded, and damselflies of other families may occasionally spread their wings, especially when agitated.
The venation has many pentagonal rathern than rectangular cells. The pterostigma and male appendages recall those of Sympecma. However these have a pale brown body, marked with dark bronze, and they parch with closed wings (sometimes folded along only one side of the abdomen)
Calopteryx also have metallic bodies and Epallage even combines pruinosity, long pterostigma and open wings at rest. Both these have multiple cross-veins between the wing base and the node.
Smaller damselflies, such as Erythromma, Ceriagrion and especially Nehalennia, can sometimes have metallic bodies, but they have large lozenge-shaped pterostigma. Their venation is more squarely mesh-like and they have differently configured markings.
In case of doubt, lestids never has longitudinal veins branch off the vein connecting the arculus and subnode.
Behaviour
Lestes males are very active, often hooking up with females of other species or other males but hybrids are not known from Lestes (only from the closely related Chalcolestes parvidens and Chalcolestes viridis.). The male and female oviposit in tandem, and eggs are typically placed in living plant tissue, often well above or away from water.
Lestes are hardy species, their eggs are cold- and drought-resistant, their larvae are fast-growing and the adults are highly mobile. This allows survival in seasonally dry habitats. These features are most strongly developed in L. barbarus. L. viridis might be the least hardy, instead it has specialised in ovipositing into the bark of living twigs.
Family: Lestidae
The Lestidae are a rather small family of cosmopolitan, large-sized, slender damselflies, known commonly as the spreadwings or spread-winged damselflies.
The two subfamilies in Lestidae are Lestinae and Sympecmatinae. Damselflies in the Lestinae rest with their wings partly open, while those in the Sympecmatinae, the reedlings, ringtails, and winter damselflies, rest with their wings folded. The exact taxonomy of the family is disputed, with some authorities including twelve genera and some eight.
Characteristics
While most damselflies rest with their wings folded together, most members of the family Lestidae hold them at an angle away from their bodies. The pterostigma is noticeably elongated. The quadrilateral has an acute angle at the end. The body has a greenish, metallic shine. The anal appendages of male spreadwings are long and strongly curved.
Breeding takes place in slow-moving or still water in stream backwaters, swamps, marshes and temporary pools. The nymphs have a long abdomen and a distinctive prementum.