Flight season: mid-June to early September.
Population: common, may be found at most local marshes, occasionally seen at marshy areas along the north shore of Stoco Lake.
Length: about 40 mm. Often found in the same habitat as the Sweetflag Spreadwing (Lestes forcipatus).
Male Northern Spreadwings tend to develop less pruinosity on the terminal abdominal segments and thorax than male
Sweetflag Spreadwings, however, examination of the cerci is the most reliable means of separating the two species.
Females can be distinguished by their ovipositors.
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Tweed, Ontario, about ½ km west of town, a marsh bordering the trans-Canada Trail:
typical local marsh with Cattails, sedges and other emergent vegetation, various small willows, alders, dogwoods and some Tamarack.
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Male Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus)
July 20, 2010
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Claspers of the male depicted above –
looking at the cerci, the basal tooth and distal tooth are similar in size,
and the space between the teeth is relatively small (compare to the cerci of the Sweetflag Spreadwing).
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The dorsal aspect of the claspers of another male;
Northern Spreadwings exhibit pruinosity only on S9 and S10
(July 13, 2010).
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Views of an immature male Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus) and its claspers
(July 01, 2010).
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Female Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus)
July 15, 2010
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Female Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus)
July 16, 2010
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Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus), tandem
July 13, 2010
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Compare the ovipositors of the females depicted above to the much larger, dark-rimmed ovipositor of the female Sweetflag Spreadwing.
Northern Spreadwing females show a considerable amount of yellow on the side of the thorax, whereas Sweetflag Spreadwing females are white.
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