I would tend to call this S. vicinum; the other species discussed should have black legs. If it is vicinum it should have been small and slender, with little black on the adbomen (and certainly no regular triangular-shaped black markings). Did you take a photo of the abdomen?

Also, I think the flight date may be key here. In West Virginia (climate similar to New Jersey) this is the only Meadowhawk still flying. In fact, the DSA has just changed the common name of S. Vicinum to "Autumn Meadowhawk."


--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

We always find these difficult. We only call them white faced when they have quite white faces. Otherwise we look for yellow legs, and this one seems to have them, so we would call it S. vicinum. Our default position if we can't identify them as something other and don't have genitalia to examine is S. rubicundulum, but it just may be that Ruby is the common species here around Chicago. It may be different in NJ. Good luck. We look forward to reading some advice to you from the experts.