Lilypad Forktail (Ischnura kellicotti) male damselfly on a lily pad. The location was a big clue to identifying this small damselfly (a fair number of damselfly species are electric blue), which spends its life on and around waterlilies. The downward bending of the abdomen tip when it poses is also characteristic of this species. The females can be orange.
Another water body, another species of lily. This is an exuvia, the shed skin of a nymph stage damsel- or dragonfly. What kind I don’t know. I’ve usually found them on verticals — reeds, etc. — on which the nymph climbs up out of the water when it’s time to erupt and sprout wings.
Lilypad Forktail
Published August 7, 2013 Fieldnotes 2 CommentsTags: Brooklyn, damselflies, Green-Wood, insects
Your exuvia looks like Eastern amberwing (Perithemis tenera). I also found them, as if they were standing on their toes on Nymphea leaves, in Gatineau, QC.
Thank you! We certainly have the amberwings here in Brooklyn, NY.