Forest spreadwing facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Forest spreadwing |
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| Male | |
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| Female | |
| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Suborder: | Zygoptera |
| Family: | Lestidae |
| Genus: | Lestes |
| Species: |
L. dorothea
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| Binomial name | |
| Lestes dorothea Fraser, 1924
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The Forest Spreadwing (Lestes dorothea) is a type of damselfly. It belongs to the Lestidae family, also known as "spreadwings" because of how they hold their wings. You can find this damselfly in parts of India, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Contents
What Does It Look Like?
The Forest Spreadwing is a fairly large damselfly. Male Forest Spreadwings have a body (abdomen) that is about 36 to 40 millimeters long. This is a bit longer than a similar damselfly called Lestes praemorsus, which has an abdomen of 32 to 35 millimeters.
Male Forest Spreadwing
The male Forest Spreadwing has a black head. When they are fully grown, their eyes are a beautiful deep sapphire-blue color. Their main body part (thorax) is black. It has white dusting (called pruinose) on the sides and is yellow underneath.
On the top of the thorax, there are two shiny metallic green stripes. These stripes look similar to those on L. praemorsus. However, the Forest Spreadwing also has a blurry black stripe on its side, near the wings. It also has a few black spots. Older males get a lot of white dusting on their thorax, which can hide these markings.
Their wings are clear (hyaline), and a small, colored spot on the edge of the wing (pterostigma) is black. The abdomen is blue or greenish-blue with black markings. The ninth segment of the abdomen is completely black. This is different from L. praemorsus, which has large blue spots on this segment. The tail-end parts (anal appendages) are bluish, with black at the very beginning and end.
Female Forest Spreadwing
Female Forest Spreadwings have an olive-green thorax. The sides are a pale greenish-yellow. Their markings are usually wider and easier to see than on the males. The female's anal appendages are small and black.
How to Tell Them Apart
You can tell the Forest Spreadwing apart from L. praemorsus by a few things:
- The Forest Spreadwing is generally larger.
- Males of the Forest Spreadwing have no markings on segments 8 and 9 of their abdomen.
- They have blurry black stripes on the side of their thorax.
Where Do They Live?
Forest Spreadwings like to live near water. They often breed in ponds that have a lot of plants growing in and around them.
See also
- List of odonates of India
- List of odonata of Kerala
Images for kids
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Dorsal view in tandem
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Lateral view in tandem
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Ovipositing
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The diffuse black stripes on the humeral suture is more visible in female
 | Janet Taylor Pickett |
 | Synthia Saint James |
 | Howardena Pindell |
 | Faith Ringgold |
