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- Home - Return Home
- Kingdom - Animals - Animalia
- Phylum - Spiders, Insects, and Crustaceans - Arthropoda
- Class - Insects - Insecta
- Order - Dragonflies / Damselflies - Odonata
- Family - Spread-winged Damselflies - Lestidae
- Species - Sweetflag Spreadwing - Lestes forcipatus
Sweetflag Spreadwing - Lestes forcipatus
General Description
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Species Range
Montana Range
Range Descriptions
Native
Range Comments
Further collecting is required to determine status in state (Miller and Gustafson 1996).
Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 46
(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version)
Relative Density
Recency
(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)
Habitat
The habitat of the Sweetflag Spreadwing is temporary and permanent ponds, lakes with emergent vegetation, as well as bogs, fens and slow "weedy" streams (Westfall and May 1996, Paulson 2009).
National Vegetation Classification System Groups Associated with this Species
Wetland and Riparian
Alkaline - Saline Wetlands
Alpine Riparian and Wetland
Peatland
Riparian and Wetland Forest
Riparian Shrubland
Wet Meadow and Marsh
Food Habits
Larvae feed on a wide variety of aquatic insects, such as mosquito larvae, other aquatic fly larvae, mayfly larvae, and freshwater shrimp.
Adult- This damselfly will eat almost any soft-bodied flying insect including mosquitoes, flies, small moths, mayflies, and flying ants or termites.
Reproductive Characteristics
Male Sweetflag Spreadwings can be common in appropriate habitat. Copulation and oviposition tends to occur in the afternoon and eggs are deposited into stems of bulrushes, rushes, and cattails, as well as on floating mats and in low sedges (Paulson 2009).
Stewardship Responsibility
References
- Literature Cited AboveLegend:
View Online Publication
Miller, K.B. and D.L. Gustafson. 1996. Distribution records of the Odonata of Montana. Bulletin of American Odonatology 3(4):75-88.- Paulson, D.R. 2009. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 535 pp.
- Westfall, M.J., Jr. and M.L. May. 1996. Damselflies of North America. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, Florida. 649 pp.
- Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?- Acorn, J. 2004. Damselflies of Alberta: flying neon toothpicks in grass. Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press. 156 pp.
- Dunkle, S.W. 2000. Dragonflies through binoculars: A field guide to dragonflies of North America. New York, NY. Oxford University Press. 266 pp.
- Web Search Engines for Articles on "Sweetflag Spreadwing"
- Additional Sources of Information Related to "Insects"
