Over the past few years we obtained three female Libellula luctuosa specimens, all collected in northeast Ohio, which exhibited unusually reduced wing pigmentation. The individuals were extremely difficult to identify as most keys rely heavily upon wing pigmentation for identification of many Libellula species. A description of this aberrant wing pigmentation and a photograph are provided

Chapman, Eric G

Chordas, Stephen W, III

Glotzhober, Robert C

English

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Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in \u3ci\u3eLibellula Luctuosa\u3c/i\u3e Specimens From Ohio

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The Great Lakes Entomologist Volume 32 Number 4 - Winter 1999 Number 4 - Winter 1999 Article 2 December 1999 Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in Libellula Luctuosa Specimens From Ohio Eric G. Chapman Kent State University Stephen W. Chordas III Ohio Biological Survey Robert C. Glotzhober Ohio Historical Society Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Chapman, Eric G.; Chordas, Stephen W. III; and Glotzhober, Robert C. 1999. "Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in Libellula Luctuosa Specimens From Ohio," The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 32 (3) Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol32/iss3/2 This Peer-Review Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Great Lakes Entomologist by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 1999 243THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST ABERRANT WING PIGMENTATION IN LlBELLULA LUCTUOSA SPECIMENS FROM OHIO Eric G. Chapman 1, Stephen W. Chordas 1112 and Robert C. Glotzhober3 ABSTRACT Over the past few years we obtained three female Libellula luctuosa specimens, all collected in northeast Ohio, which exhibited unusually re­duced wing pigmentation. The individuals were extremely ifficult to iden­tify as most keys rely heavily upon wing pigmentation for identification of many Libellula species. A description of this aberrant wing pigmentation and a photograph are provided. As most odonate enthusiasts know, the Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctu­osa Burmeister 1839) is a common (often abundant) species found arlentic habitats throughout much of North America. It can often be immedi­ately recognized in the field by the distinctive large black band covering the basal portion of the wings. Most keys rely largely upon this characteristic to separate L. luctuosa from other Libellula species. Needham and Westfall (1955) separates L. luctuosa in the first couplet by stating "basal third of both fore and hind wings covered full width by blackish band; wing tips clear." An example of this typical L. luctuosa wing pattern is illustrated in Figure 1. Until recently, these characteristics, although sometimes slightly to highly variable, usually worked for us to identify Ohio L. luctuosa specimens. During the latter part of 1996 and again in 1997, we collected a total of three female L. luctuosa specimens (all from northeast Ohio) that had re­markably aberrant wing pigmentation patterns. These specimens were nearly devoid of the black basal wing band and had distinctively darkened wing tips (Figure 2). This pigmentation is almost opposite of the key charac­teristics as stated in Needham and Westfall (1955) and we had great diffi­culty identifying the specimens using this key. We have found that it is not uncommon to find female L. luctuosa specimens with a faint to distinctive darkening at the wing tips, but never before had we observed any Ohio speci­mens in which the basal black bands were mostly absent. We tentatively identified the specimens as L.luctuosa strictly based on characteristics listed in the Libellula adult measurements table of Needham and Westfall (1955). We then sent the specimens to Sidney Dunkle (Collin County Community College, Plano, Texas) who verified th ir identification as L. luctuosa and stated that the specimens had the least amount of basal wing pigmentation that he had ever seen for this species. A few points stand out about these specimens. They are not teneral indi­viduals, suggesting that their wing pigmentation (Figure 2) represents their lKent State University, Department BSCI. Kent, Ohio 44242-0001­20hio Biological Survey, 1315 Kinnear Road. Columbus, Ohi.o 43212. 30hio Historical Society, 1982 Velma Avenue. Columbus, Ohio 43211-2497. 1Chapman et al.: Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in <i>Libellula Luctuosa</i> SpecimensPublished by ValpoScholar, 1999244 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 32, No.4 1. Libellula luctuosa specimen with typical wing pigmentation, col­from Stark County; Ohio, July 1990. Figure 2. Libellula luctuosa specimen with aberrant wing pigmentation, col­lected from Mahoning County, Ohio, September 199B. 2The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 32, No. 3 [1999], Art. 2https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol32/iss3/2'0 '0 '0 Table 1. Collection and repository information of the aberrant L. luctuosa specimens. Date/ Collector Collection location Repository -l ILake Park State Wildlife Area, Private collection of m off Lake Park Road: Eric Ch.apmaln G)N40 55'08" . 81 04'32" ;u m ~ s;: A Ohio / Columbiana / Franklin 1-September-1996/ Nancy Run offFoun dry Hill Arkansas State University (/'J m Sieve W. Chordas III Road, 1.5 km sout.h of Yellow Museum of Zoology m Creek Church Road: (ASUMZ) Z N40 39'58": W80 51'38" o ~ 5 G)Ohio I Lake I Concord Girdled Road Reservation, Ohio Historical U>Lake Collections -l N41 38'54" . 10'32" tv .t>.. lh 3Chapman et al.: Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in <i>Libellula Luctuosa</i> SpecimensPublished by ValpoScholar, 1999246 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 32, No.4 mature wing pattern, they are all female and two of the three specimens were collected on the same day approximately 40 km apart (in northeast Ohio) (Table 1). These individuals re obviously very uncommon b t repre­sent such a large deviation from the normal wing patterns, which are often used as the sole key character for specific identification, that hey merit re­porting here. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Sidney Dunkel for verifying the identification of our aberrant specimens and for providing valuable input concerning the variability of wing patterns in L. luctuosa. We thank Janna M. Thompson (Janna Thomp­son Designs, Columbus, Ohio) for her computer graphic expertise used in dig­itally producing the wing pigmentation figures. Finally we thank the Ohio Division of Wildlife and their wildlife diversity and endangered species pro­gram for supporting the Odonata of Ohio project (conducted by the Ohio Odonata Society), through which the aberrant specimens were obtained. LITERATURE CITED Needham J.G. and M.J. Westfall. 1955. A manual of the dragonflies of North America (Anisoptera). Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley. 615 pp. 4The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 32, No. 3 [1999], Art. 2https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol32/iss3/2

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Aberrant Wing Pigmentation in \u3ci\u3eLibellula Luctuosa\u3c/i\u3e Specimens From Ohio

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