Hetaerina Heaven

Now here’s a lickable damselfly. (Yeah, you actually want to lick them as they dance along riverbanks.) I know of only two sites for Hetaerina americana (American Rubyspot) in my home state of Vermont. This elegant animal has an odd, scattered distribution across North America and is uncommon over much of the Northeast. So it was a joy to see clouds of them — thousands, really — along the Clinton River in southeastern Michigan yesterday. They perched on streamside vegetation, on rocks, on garbage on me. Males flew circles around one another in competition for perches. Despite their abundance, I saw none courting or copulating. Why? I know little of this species’ phenology in Michigan, but perhaps they were still early in the adult stage, not quite ready for, well, you know. Dragonflies and damselflies do require a bit of time at adults to feed and mature before copulation (in stark contrast to butterflies, which go right at it when they emerge). In any event, below is a male from yesterday and then a female, which I photographed a couple years ago in Missouri.