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Photo#179943
Damselfly - Ischnura prognata - female

Damselfly - Ischnura prognata - Female
Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, USA
April 11, 2008

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Damselfly - Ischnura prognata - female Damselfly - Ischnura prognata - female Damselfly - Ischnura prognata - female

Moved
Moved from Forktails.

Furtive Forktail?
The wings are stalked, so it's not a broad-winged damselfly. The legs look too short, the ovipositor too small and the head shape looks wrong for a spreadwing, which leaves the pond damsels. The spines on the legs are relatively short in relation to the length of the spaces between them, so probably not a sprite or dancer. There does not appear to be a vulvar spine below segment 8, which I think rules out bluets. The color and pattern of the thorax rules out Duckweed Firetail, which leaves only the forktails. Of the forktails in that area, only Citrine, Fragile and Furtive might lack a vulvar spine. You should be able to see the exclamation point (!) pattern on the thorax of a Fragile, which I don't see here. The thin line on the thorax looks like a Furtive, not a Citrine. Also, according to Abbot's Texas book, Citrine's lay their eggs in submerged vegetation, just under the surface, which also suggests that this is not a Citrine (though I suppose there could be exceptions to this).

So, I would guess it's a Furtive Forktail, Ischnura prognata. I base this on what I've gathered from Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas by John Abbott and Damselflies of the Northeast by Ed Lam, and the Louisiana state checklist on OdonataCentral.com.

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