Great Spreadwing damselfly (female)

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Great Spreadwing damselfly (female)

October 11, 2015 by Mike Powell

What’s the largest damselfly in North American? According to Dennis Paulson, in his wonderful book, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, that title goes to the Great Spreadwing damselfly (Archilestes grandis), which is more than two inches (5 cm) in length, i.e. bigger than many of the dragonflies that I so frequently chase.

My good friend and local dragonfly expert Walter Sanford spotted a male Great Spreadwing this past week and posted a photo of it and yesterday I felt inspired to try to find one myself. He had provided me the general location at Huntley Meadows Park, my favorite local place for nature photography, and I patiently searched near the water, in the tall vegetation, and under the trees for almost two hours.

As my patience was starting to wear thin, I finally spotted one. The Great Spreadwing damselflies have a yellow racing stripe on their thorax and are quite distinctive, in addition to their size. I took some initial shots with my big zoom lens and then switched quickly to my 180mm macro lens.

The first Great Spreadwing I spotted was a male, but eventually I spotted a female and a pair of them in the tandem position. I am still going through my shots, but wanted to post a couple initially. I will probably post some more images in another posting or two.

The first shot shows a female Great Spreadwing damselfly—you can tell from her coloration and her terminal appendages. She let me take quite a few photos and returned to nearby vegetation a couple of times when she was spooked. The second image is a close-up that shows her beautiful eyes and her blue upper lips, which I think technically are called labrum.

Perhaps blue lips are the new fashion craze for the autumn. I’ll look around and see if any of the young ladies in the Washington D.C. area are sporting this look.

Posted in Dragonflies, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Archilestes grandis, Canon 50D, Great Spreadwing, Great Spreadwing damselfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 180mm macro lens | 8 Comments

8 Responses

on October 11, 2015 at 8:32 am | Reply waltersanford

Great catch, Mike! You have learned your lessons well, Grasshopper.
on October 11, 2015 at 8:46 am | Reply Laura (PA Pict)

Wonderful images as always. The colours are terrific and the detail in the legs is superb.
on October 11, 2015 at 9:22 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Those are excellent photos! I went looking for dragon / damselflies yesterday and didn’t see a single one. It might be too cold here now.
on October 11, 2015 at 4:08 pm | Reply Birder's Journey

Thanks for the great link to Paulson’s book – what a treasure. So glad you found this very long and beautiful creature. The blue lips could really catch on!
- on October 11, 2015 at 4:17 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I use the hard copy version of the book, but a good friend uses the electronic version, I believe. It’s a great resource for reference. As for the blue lips….we’ll have to wait and see. 🙂
on October 12, 2015 at 8:42 pm | Reply Sue

So if a damselfly is bigger than some dragonflies, what determines which it is? I had no idea damselflies could get so big. The only ones I’ve seen around here are about 1 inch long.
- on October 13, 2015 at 3:58 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I am not sure scientifically what the determines the difference, but I think the eyes are a factor–with dragonflies, the eyes are close together and with damselflies, they are farther apart (or so it seems).
on October 30, 2015 at 8:48 pm | Reply Great Spreadwing (mating pairs, in tandem) | walter sanford's photoblog

[…] and photograph a female Great Spreadwing damselfly (Archilestes grandis). Although I never saw a solo female, I was fortunate to photograph several mating pairs at Huntley Meadows […]