Erythemis plebeja ♂ - Pin-tailed Pondhawk / Falcão-da-Cauda-de-Alfinete (Burmeister, 1839)

Odonata: Epipocrita (= Epiproctophora): Anisoptera: Libelluloidea: Libellulidae: Sympetrinae

Sex: ♂
Date: 20th of May, 2018 at 11:27:47am.
Length: ~41 - 49mm.
Location: Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza (Lat: -3.7489019565344814, Long: -38.48419509403061, Acurácia em metros: 1.0428013003125183)

Found in a natural reserve with trails and wooden constructions such as bridges. Plenty of trees and unadulterated vegetations could be seen.

Erythemis is a genus of dragonflies in the order Odonata, suborder Epipocrita, infraorder Anisoptera, superfamily Libelluloidea, family Libellulidae and subfamily Sympetrinae.

Spreading throughout the tropics, the population of Erythemis plebeja has only grown in the past decades in the United States, becoming a common species altogether.

They are found in open marshy areas with ponds, edges of canals, lakes and temporary pools, all with plenty of floating or emergent vegetation where they can breed and proceed with the cycle. It is unknown whether they can breed in temporary pools or not.

Offspring are aquatic predators as common in Odonata, feeding on small Arthropoda and most likely tadpoles, and are possibly cannibals if needed.

Under IUCN 3.1 (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/164992/0) their conservation status is listed as “Least Concern”, with no threats currently endangering the species.

You can see the distribution on this species in the link above:

“Native: Argentina (Buenos Aires, Chaco, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Jujuy, Misiones, Salta, Santa Fé, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán); Belize; Bolivia; Brazil (Mato Grosso, Rio de Janeiro); Cayman Islands; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cuba; Curaçao; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; El Salvador; French Guiana; Guatemala; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Jamaica; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, México Distrito Federal, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán); Nicaragua; Panama; Paraguay; Peru; Puerto Rico; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago; United States (Florida, Texas); Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela…”, and possibly many more. They are also spread in South America and I doubt they are restricted to the states of Mato Grosso and Rio de Janeiro, but this same doubt comes around.

Hence how unsure I am on the species, even knowing the distribution status is probably lacking. This species is listed for Brazil, but not in the state it was found. Doubt is raised until further confirmation on the true identity is given, taking in mind that the distribution status can be unreliable.

According to IUCN 3.1 they have one generation per year.

Connection between the wings and thorax's laterals are reddish-brown in coloring. The main color of the dragonfly is black. Wing nodus about halfway across the forewings’ costa with a pterostigma present in a dark coloring near the tip. The thorax and most of the dragonfly are covered in thick, dark hairs. Face made of large, compound and dark eyes, labrum, anteclypeus, postclypeus, mandible and antennae. Ocelli most likely present, but unsure. Underside contains mesepimeron. Legs are black and made of a coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus and claws. Posterior to the head connecting it to the thorax there is the prothorax.

The size ranges around 41 - 49mm. 10 abdominal segments are seemingly present; first three are black and swollen in mature males, and 4 to 10 are slender (https://bugguide.net/node/view/38512) Apparently, populations of this species in Florida were most likely introduced by human activities and supposedly the first report of the species was in Miami in 1971 and it has since, very slowly, spread northwards.

As can be seen on the terminalia at the caudal end of the abdomen the subject portrayed is a male.

The adults are aerial predators of Arthropoda, while the larvae are, as previously mentioned, aquatic predators.

This genus shows considerable variations in genitalia characteristics, body coloration and wing patterns. It is known that these traits are affected by different kinds of selection that blur their phylogenetic signals. Ten species are currently known to be part of the genus Erythemis.

Some species in the genus Erythemis are territorialists and can tolerate high temperatures. Males of some species show continuous signals of interspecific aggressions during mating and hunting (Baird & May, 2003) - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263424932_Phylogenetic_signal_of_subsets_of_morphological_characters_A_case_study_in_the_genus_Erythemis_Anisoptera_Libellulidae

Catalogue of Life: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/aefd99215257751672c67eb54b49fc66