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Photo#18209
Elegant Spreadwing - Lestes inaequalis - male

Elegant Spreadwing - Lestes inaequalis - Male
Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA
June 15, 2004

Moved
Moved from Lestes. See comment on

Right about genus
Tom, you're right about the genus, but I believe the species is Lestes dryas or Lestes inaequalis. Size would be the easiest way to separate those, with a range of 32-40 mm for the former and 45-59 mm for the latter. You could also work on the minute differences between the two species in the illustrations in Ed Lam's damselflies book.

L. disjunctus has a blackish thorax with thin green non-metallic stripes.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

 
moved
to Lestes page. You're right, it's not L. disjunctus.

 
inaequalis?
It doesn't look stocky like a dryas and the paraprocts do look longer than the cerci as in your other inaequalis image. But we assume that if it were inaequalis, you would know based on the other images you have submitted. So we're stumped

 
My vow
I have made a personal vow to measure all metallic green spreadwings in the future. If I can't hold up the ruler to the spreadwing, I'll leave the focus unchanged and photograph my mm ruler.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

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