Damsels Can Be Difficult

As I have previously posted it is fairly easy to tell a dragonfly from a damselfly based either on the placement of the eyes and shape of the head or the way they hold their wings when at rest. To me dragonflies look very similar to one another except for their size, patterns, and colors. Damselflies are a bit different and I think perhaps this confuses some casual observers.

You can generally identify a damselfly by the hammer head shaped appearance produced by its widely separated eyes. A dragonfly's eyes are close together or touching and give the head a round appearance.

Damselflies typically have long, tubular bodies compared to dragonflies and most other insects. Plus, both the front and back wings of a particular damselfly are normally of the same size and shape unlike dragonflies. Typically they fold their wings together when perched. That's where part of the problem comes in. Not all damselflies follow the exact same pattern.

Most damselflies have long, thin wings that they fold together and hold more or less parallel to the body like the one above. Some damsels have larger, more paddle-shaped wings. These wings are generally folded together, but due to their size and shape the major portion of the wing extends away from the body.
Some wings are so large they actually stand straight up similar to a butterfly with its wings closed. In these species the wings are often very dark and can even appear black. And, at times some of those species might actually open and close their wings while at rest much like the butterfly.

To further complicate matters there is a group of damselflies called 'spreadwings'. Their wings may not be the same size with the rear wings sometimes being much smaller than the front wings. And they are held extended, not folded together. Often they will be at an angle to the body somewhat like a swept-wing fighter with two sets of wings .

Spreadwings are not a large segment of the damselflies. I believe there are 10 or fewer species recorded in our state and some are extremely hard to identify. I believe this is possibly either a Southern Spreadwing or a Carolina Spreadwing.
Now, if you add to all of this that some of the damselflies are extremely small you can see why identifying them by species can be difficult for the observer.

Nevertheless, they are extremely interesting to watch. They are quite different from dragonflies in their flight characteristics. Most do not zoom along like the dragons, but are more like butterflies flitting from one perch to another. Some of the smaller, lighter colored damselflies appear to float through the air like tiny ghosts of insects, rising and falling on the smallest breeze.