Wild Facts About The Black Saddlebags Dragonfly
Black Saddlebags dragonflies live throughout nearly the entire continental United States, except for North Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Minnesota.
These medium to large dragonflies are great fun to spot in the wild, in part because they are so easy to identify; the clues are in their common name.
The “saddlebags” portion refers to the large, dense blotch that covers the basal third of each hind wing and the “black” portion refers to the color of the saddlebags. While other species of saddlebags dragonflies exist, their saddlebags are red or brown. Only the Black Saddlebags has—wait for it—black saddlebag markings.
Read on to discover more details about this dragonfly and how it lives.
How To Identify Black Saddlebags Dragonflies
- Grows to 2.25 inches (52 mm) in body length.
- Hind wing length reaches nearly 2 inches (47 mm).
- Males have:
- Black eyes with metallic purple frons.
- Black bodies.
- Pruinosity may cover the bodies of mature males, and make them appear blue, as in the photos included in this post.
- A single, large black patches with pale wing veins at the base of each hind wing, called “saddlebags”.
- At times, depending on the angle of sunlight shining on the hind wings, the saddlebags look more blue than black.
- Females have:
- Brown eyes and face.
- Brown-black bodies.
- Dull yellow patches on their abdominal segments S6 and/or S7.
- The terminal appendages (the structures on the tip of the abdomen) are dark in both sexes and very long.
Black Saddlebags Dragonfly Notes
- In North Carolina, Black Saddlebags dragonflies fly from March to November.
- Black Saddlebags dragonflies migrate with the seasons.
- Look for these insects throughout the state around marshy ponds, water-filled ditches, retaining ponds, and lakes with abundant vegetation and still water.
- These dragonflies fly along the shores of their freshwater territories, over open water.
- They fly at around 17 mph (Dunkle 2000) and usually at chest height.
- Males fly long paths of more than 100 feet (30.5 m) (Paulson 2011).
- Black Saddlebags dragonflies alternate flying in tandem and separating for brief periods to lay their eggs.
- After mating, the females must lay their eggs in open water.
- Black Saddlebag males grip the females’ heads with their terminal abdominal appendages in a position known as “tandem”.
- The pairs fly in tandem across open water and pause briefly to deposit eggs.
- Males release the females temporarily so the females can lay the eggs but hover above her.
- As soon as the females deposit some eggs by dipping their abdominal tips under the water’s surface, the males clasp the females’ heads into tandem once again.
- The pairs repeat the process until the eggs are laid (Paulson 2011).
- One study researched the factors affecting oviposition sites chosen by 94 tandem pairs of Black Saddlebags dragonflies. They found that:
- Males hover approximately 25 cm above the water’s surface when they release the females.
- A tandem connection lasted 379.3 seconds on average.
- Females oviposited their eggs within an average of 4.0 meters from the shore of the research pond, just beyond the edge of the vegetation (Thornton and Switzer 2015, https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/iev035).
- Saddlebags dragonflies have been called “Dancing Gliders”, thanks to this movement pattern and behavior (Dunkle 2000).
Black Saddlebags Dragonfly Classification
|
Phylum |
Arthropoda |
|
Class |
Insecta |
|
Order |
Odonata |
|
Family |
Libellulidae (Skimmer Dragonflies) |
|
Genus |
Tramea |
|
Species |
T. tramea |
Binomial Name |
Tramea lacerata |
