Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Ebony Jewelwing – Streamside Beauty

By: Tom Berg

Dragonflies and damselflies are common sights along the shorelines of streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and other bodies of water. Most of them are very colorful and downright beautiful, and the Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly is no exception. Found throughout most of eastern North America, males of this stunning member of the damselfly family have a shiny metallic blue-green body and jet black wings. It is a sight you won’t soon forget.

Although the male ebony jewelwing has the distinctive black wings and iridescent blue-green bodies, the females are not quite as bright and have more of a metallic greenish-bronze body.  Their wings are mostly brown rather than black, too. The females also have a white spot near the tip of each wing. There are four other species of jewelwings in North America, but none of the others have totally black wings like the males of this species. Not surprisingly, these are also called the black-winged damselfly.

Ebony jewelwings are delicate little fliers, usually found fluttering around the shady, wooded edges of streams and rivers. They typically don’t fly very fast like most dragonflies; they tend to meander and flutter from place to place as they hunt tiny insects like gnats and mosquitoes. They also eat many other small insects like aphids, flies and beetles, keeping those populations in check, as well.

Like many other damselflies and dragonflies, ebony jewelwings are eaten by a wide range of predators. In their aquatic nymph state, they are eaten by many different species of fish and ducks. Once they go through metamorphosis and become airborne, they have a whole new set of hunters to worry about. Birds like flycatchers (swallows, kingbirds, great crested flycatchers and others) catch them on the wing. Bats also catch them in mid-air. Frogs catch them if they get too close, too.

Luckily, the ebony jewelwing is prolific and is here to stay. They are definitely one of our most beautiful flying insects. Their scientific name is Calopteryx maculate, and Calopteryx means “beautiful wing” which is fitting, indeed!

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