Complete Guide To The Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly

Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly Notes

• Eastern Amberwing dragonflies are common throughout North Carolina.
• Look for them near still water, such as ponds, lakes, drainage ditches, and retaining ponds.
• Like many dragonflies, Eastern Amberwing males are territorial but their territories are quite small, ranging from 54 square feet (Abbott 2015) to 100 square feet (Dunkle 2000).
  • These dragonflies seem to choose which intruders to pursue based on similarity of color and size to themselves.
    • One study researched the response of male Eastern Amberwing dragonflies over the course of 4027 territorial intrusions by five different dragonfly species, horse flies (Tabanus spp.), and Least Skipper butterflies (Ancycloxypha numitor). Of these species, the horse flies were the closest in size and shape to female Eastern Amberwings, while the butterflies were the closest in size and shape to male Eastern Amberwings.
      • Male Eastern Amberwing dragonflies responded most often to the butterflies and the horse flies and approached them more closely (Shultz and Switzer 2001, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012223217250).
      • For the most part, the male dragonflies ignored the Prince Baskettail, Pondhawk, Widow Skimmer, Blue Dasher, and Common Whitetail dragonflies, all of which look very different from Eastern Amberwings and are much bigger (Shultz and Switzer 2001, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012223217250).
• Eastern Amberwing dragonflies try to deter predators by mimicking wasps.
  • Both sexes perch on the tips of twigs and reeds and pump both their abdomens and wings up and down like wasps.
  • Female dragonflies fly with both their hind wings and abdomen raised to nearly vertical, which gives them a superficial resemblance to wasps in flight (Dunkle 2000).