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Turquoise-tipped Darner

This is the smallest of the mosaic darners in our region. It is a Neotropical species that makes it into the lower Rio Grande Valley and southern Hill Country of Texas. It is slender with a blue face and a brown "T" spot on top of the frons. The stem of the "T" is nearly parallel-sided. The eyes adjoin on top of the head for an unusually long distance. Both the middorsal and lateral, green or blue, thoracic stripes are present. The anterior lateral stripe is slightly zig-zagged. The wings are cl ear, with six to seven paranal cells in the hindwing, including three encompassed by the anal loop. The pterostigma is short. The abdomen is brown, strongly constricted behind the proximal swollen segments and has the typical blue spots down its length. This is the only mosaic darner with blue on the ventral side of segments 9 and 10. The cerci of the male are distinctly shorter than in the female. They are nearly parallel throughout their distance, but slope gently upward.

Total length: 58-62 mm; abdomen: 41-51 mm; hindwing: 36-43 mm.

The more common Blue-eyed Darner (A. multicolor ) and Arroyo Darner (A. dugesi ) are larger with straight lateral thoracic stripes.

Slow-flowing, open sunlit permanent and temporary streams and ponds.

Turquoise-tipped Darner was only recently reported from United States for the first time, from two previously collected male specimens. One was from Landa Park in New Braunfels and the other from Brownsville, Texas. More recently it has been found southeastern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley.

Southern Texas and southeastern Arizona southward through Mexico to Ecuador and Peru.

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