northeast-flora-and-fauna

 I saw a bunch of Variable Dancers 1 day last summer. Perhaps if you heard that someone saw variable dancers, you might think they saw several dancers of different abilities. But in the naturalist world it means damselflies, and in my area the Variable Dancers are likely to be Violet Dancers  [1]. Here are 2 of the male and (presumably) 1 of the female Violet Dancers. While some young adult odonate males look similar to females until pruinose builds up on their abdomen/thorax, it sounds like the violet color of the males does not come from pruinose. I believe this means that brown individuals like the 1 in the last picture are always going to be females rather than a mix of males without their mature coloring plus females. July 3, 2023 at Washington Valley Park Photo 301258933, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) July 3, 2023 at Washington Valley Park Photo 301259599, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) July 3, 2023 at Washington Valley Park Photo 3012...

Here's a Variable Dancer I met late last spring. This is 1 of the few odonate species that consists of subspecies due to both geography and appearance. Since females would have black lines on her abdominal segments, I believe this to be an immature male. And given the relatively clear wings and that he was living in NJ, I suspect that when fully mature he'll turn out to be 1 of our Violet Dancers , 1 of the 3 subspecies of Variable Dancer. June 1, 2022 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 205020761, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another Violet Dancer damselfly. I've discussed them before , where I mentioned that they are a subspecies of the Variable Dancer . I do wonder if in 100,000 years or so, the subspecies of Variable Dancers will become different enough that they're considered separate species. I did like this picture. The violet coloring on the green leaves really stand out ... and it sorta looks like he's giving me a big, toothy grin. July 22, 2021 at Fairview Farm Photo 148400697, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I know I posted a Violet Dancer picture fairly recently , but I liked the way this picture came out. You can see the vibrant color, and the little fella is even looking at the camera. The Violet Dancer isn't actually a species; it's a subspecies of the Variable Dancer . Generally I'm in favor of using subspecies when different populations of a species look quite a bit different from one another, and that's the case for the Variable Dancer. The Black Dancer and the Smoky-winged Dancer do look quite a bit different from the Violet Dancer despite being able to breed with one another. Dancers were named by people impressed with their flying skills; it is highly unlikely that one will dance the Hokey Pokey with you. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141974717, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)