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Canyon Rubyspot

The male labrum is pale yellow with a central dark brown spot. The clypeus and basal antennal segment are both tan in color. The top of the head is dark brown to black with iridescent bronze reflections. The pterothorax is deep iridescent red dorsally with a black middorsal ca rina and pale tan laterally. The red basal spots in both wings become more intense with age. The venation in the basal portion of the wing is white ventrally. The tips of the wings are often edged with brown and lack a pterostigma. The basal abdominal segments are dark brown-black dorsally, each with narrow light yellow band anteriorly. The caudal appendages are light tan to brown. The female is similar to the male, but with the lighter coloration more extensive. The pterothorax is iridescent green dorsally with lateral iridescent green stripes, but these are less extensive than in males and may be absent. The wings lack the intense basal red spots of males, but are suffused with orange basally.

Total length: 36-49 mm; abdomen: 28-41mm; hindwing: 25-32 mm

This southwestern species closely resembles American Rubyspot (H. americana), but it has a different abdominal pattern and lacks pterostigmas. See description of that species for futher distinctions. Smoky Rubyspot (H. titia ) has extensive brown in the wings and its range does not overlap with Canyon Rubyspot

Streams and rivers in open canopy woodlands

Canyon Rubyspot was thought to be completely apterostigmatous, but Garrison (1990 ) reported specimens from Canon Huasteca National Park in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, that are pterostigmatous. Though they show other differences, Garrison describes them as "easily referable to H. vulnerata." The ranges of American and Canyon Rubyspot overlap and they are known to occur together. Males remain with the female after mating and will even adopt the unusual behavior of leaving their territory to accompany females in tandem on a search for egg laying sites elsewhere. They will then perch and guard the female while she submerges underwater to oviposit. There are two records of male Canyon Rubyspots from Bexar County, Texas. This Balconian locality is considerably east of the normal range for this species.

Southwestern United States; south through Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras.

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