"New" state record: Western Red Damsel (Amphiagrion abbreviatum)

The conundrum of red damsels in the genus Amphiagrion has been going on for years. Are there two species (Eastern - A. saucium, and Western - A. abbreviatum)? Or is there a third species (A. 'mesonum') as was thought by Leonora "Dolly" Gloyd? Or is it all one species, with a cline from west to east? 

Pair of Eastern Red Damsels (Amphiagion saucium), Livingston Co., MI

 

Montgomery (1943) noted that Eastern and Western "forms" could not be properly assigned to species, and somewhat arbitrarily designated all red damsels from northwestern Indiana as Western and the rest of the state as Eastern. Kormondy (1957) commented on a "zone of overlap" between the Eastern and Western forms, gave some measurements, but concluded that morphological features were more important than measurements. O'Brien (1999) brought up Gloyd's unfinished work on the third species and said Michigan had what appeared to be intermediate forms; he lumped all Michigan records into Eastern Red Damsel for the purposes of the Michigan Odonata Survey. Donnelly (2001) lamented that many records from the Great Plains were simply assigned to Western Red Damsel without examination and reiterated that the taxonomy of Amphiagrion was not resolved. Daigle and Pilgrim (2014) attempted to tackle the problem with DNA (but did not specify methods such as which gene regions were used) and concluded that Western Red Damsels occur to the Indiana/Ohio border...but that red damsels from western Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee were identical genetically to those from New York and Vermont.

This is by no means a complete bibliography of thoughts published on this topic. Ken Tennessen has worked up color and morphology differences based on nearly 200 individuals (unpublished, pers. comm.). We've contributed to that effort by looking at dozens specimens at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) and Michigan State University, including many that Gloyd identified as A. 'mesonum' (her manuscript and notes on how she came to these conclusions has not been found). 

We utilized Ken's latest matrix of 2 color features, 7 measurements, and 1 structural characteristic -- some are a bit subjective and a few overlap. We determined that there were some Michigan vouchers that are strong enough candidates to be called Western Red Damsel, and so we have added this species to the Michigan checklist.

 

First, we found 4 males collected in July 1973 in Houghton County by John Perona. They were in his large collection of mostly Lepidoptera donated to the Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection at Michigan State University. It included many pinned Odonata of which a large portion were unidentified; as curators of this part of the MSU collection, we have worked through the Perona material to identify, catalog, and database the Michigan Odonata.

 

One of the Western Red Damsels from the Perona collection at Michigan State University.

Another collection we have been working to incorporate into the MOS database is at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in Gainesville. The Odonata collection is not digitized nor do the items have catalog numbers. Earlier this year a student, Anisha Sapkota, was hired to photograph all the adult Michigan Odonata and assign catalog numbers (more on this project in a future post). We reviewed the daily output for those we wanted to obtain on loan. This was one of those items:

 

These 4 males from Baraga County were initially identified as the Eastern Red Damsel, but then changed -- we assume by collector Sid Dunkle -- to Western Red Damsel. We confirmed the latter identification. 

 

While the eight males above seem to be the best fit for Western Red Damsel, additional work needs to be done to shed light on the distribution of Amphiagrion across North America and in particular in the middle of the U.S. There are not enough recent specimens to work with, particularly from the Great Plains, western Great Lakes, and Ohio River Valley. And specimens will be necessary to take meticulous measurements of various parts of these tiny insects, and to have the material to do additional DNA work utilizing multiple genetic regions.

 

We are currently working on pulling this project together. 

Literature cited:

 

Daigle, Jerrell J. and Erik Pilgrim. 2014. Amphiagrion (red damsel) update. Argia 26(1):19. 

 

Donnelly, Nick. 2001. Taxonomic problems with North American odonata species - a last appeal for information. Argia 13(2):5-10. 

 

Kormondy, Edward J. 1957. Records of western Odonata with notes on Amphiagrion abbreviatum (Selys). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 30 (3): 108-110.

Montgomery, B. Elwood. 1943. The Distribution and Relative Seasonal Abundance of the Indiana Species of Agrionidae (Odonata-Zygoptera). Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, 53:179-185.

O'Brien, Mark F. 1999. Changes to the 1999 Michigan Odonata list. Williamsonia 3(2):4-5. 

New Wayne County records

(Updated 11 Aug 2025)

Several Four new species have been added to the Wayne County checklist in 2025, based on both field work and discovery of a specimen in an institutional collection.

Here is a mid-2025 update:

Blue-faced Meadowhawk, Sympetrum ambiguum. This is an interesting species to us, one that occurs south of Michigan and apparently breeds just across the border in Ohio. We looked at all 15 specimens in the MOS database, all housed at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ). There were 9 nymphs, 2 exuvia, and 4 adults. All the nymphs, one exuvia, and 3 female adults were all misidentified. The two remaining specimens were a correctly identified adult male from Washtenaw County from 1919 collected by Mary Elizabeth McCormick, and an exuvia also from Washtenaw County from 1997 collected by Ellie Shappirio that had measurements and characteristics that fit Blue-faced but had some overlap with other species; we left it as okay for now.

On 23 July, we were on a trail close to a very slow, vegetated section of the Huron River. There were surprisingly few meadowhawks anywhere -- we had already been around the pond not far from the nature center and worked our way to the river. A meadowhawk flushed from near the ground and perched on a stick. The abdomen was very clearly ringed, rather than having triangles. We netted this teneral male for the first county voucher. The specimen is deposited in the Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection at Michigan State University.

Meadowhawks are so ubiquitous and many are difficult or impossible to ID in the field that many people don't pay close attention to them. However, the ringed abdomen is distinctive and it's worth keeping an eye out for this species, especially in the southern part of the state. This individual was not mature, so it's possible this species is breeding in Michigan, or it could be an Ohio stray. 

First Wayne County voucher of Blue-faced Meadowhawk. Photo by Darrin O'Brien.

Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Dromogomphus spinosus. This is a species we've seen several times in the county since 2010. At Oakwoods Metropark on 23 July shortly after our successful Blue-faced Meadowhawk find, we continued on the trail along the Huron River. We flushed a large gomphid. When it perched again we gave it a look and remarked, rather nonchalantly because in many places this is a pretty common species, that it was a Black-shouldered Spinyleg. It took a moment for it to dawn on us that there were still no vouchers for the county. It landed close by again, but we missed netting it. 

We also saw some interesting river cruisers (Macromia sp.) on the Huron River farther upstream at Lower Huron Metropark. Examining some in the hand was our main goal for a return trip on 2 August, so we brought along a cadre of friends.

Along the river are Darrin O'Brien ("Stylurus", the Urban Dragon Hunter); David Marvin; and Dr. Anthony Cognato, professor of entomology and arthropod collections manager at MSU. In the foreground are Jordy Hernandez, one of Anthony's former graduate students and lead author of a great paper on the striped emeralds; and John Douglass, former president of the Great Lakes Entomological Society.

We saw very few dragonflies at all along the trails. If one were interested in a study of Blue-fronted Dancers (Argia apicalis), though, this would have been heaven. As Jordy and I were chatting about some non-Odonata topic, a gomphid landed right in front of us. It flushed and flew a short distance away, where it was confirmed to be a Black-shouldered Spinyleg. David was closest so we let him to the honors of snagging it for a first county voucher, also now deposited at MSU. 

David Marvin gets the first county specimen of Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus). P.S. David is always smiling and happy!

As far as Macromias, on 23 July we saw many and netted a handful, including at least one that was quite intriguing. But between then and our return trip with reinforcements on 2 August, a heavy rainfall raised the water levels substantially, and there were hardly any Macromias patrolling the river. 

However, Darrin and David went back to the metroparks again on 10 August, and nearly immediately David netted a male Swift River Cruiser, Macromia illinoiensis. This is also a species that we've seen on occasion over the years, but never vouchered. 

First Wayne County voucher of Swift River Cruiser. Photo by David Marvin.

The last new species for Wayne County is Taiga Bluet, Coenagrion resolutum. This damselfly is widely distributed across the state, but there are more records farther north, as the name implies.

Earlier this year, John Douglass funded a student, Anisha Sapkota, to photograph all the adult Odonata housed collected in Michigan at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in Gainesville -- we will writing more about that in another post. The Odonata collection is not digitized nor do the items have catalog numbers, so adding them was part of the project. Anisha uploaded the photos she took each day, and we reviewed them for those we wanted to obtain on loan, and then proceeded to transcribe each item to include in the MOS database. I was surprised to see this turn up in the queue:

We'd never heard of H.J. Hubbard, although Henry Guernsey Hubbard is well-known to us and other students of entomological history. We have other items in the MOS database he collected in the late 1870s.

We obtained the item on loan, and confirmed it was indeed correctly identified as a Taiga Bluet. To find this species in Detroit in the late 1970s seemed hard to believe. We noted that the collector tag in the image looked suspiciously vintage to us. When we got the item, we looked at the reverse side of the other tag in the envelope (visible in the image above at the end of the abdomen of the damsel, but facing down). It read "Detroit 29.5.74". Whoever typed up this card assumed the wrong century. In vetting specimens from many collections, we have found this mistake to be very common. The handwriting and faded nature of the tag made it easy to mistake the 74 for 79. But indeed, Henry G. Hubbard and Eugene A. Schwarz collected insects in Detroit in May 1874, as documented by several biographies as well as specimens in a number of collections, most in the U.S. National Museum.

Further, I could find nothing about a "H. J." Hubbard, even doing extensive genealogical research. The tag clearly says "H.J." but perhaps it was a misprint and used anyway. This seems curious given that the Hubbards were a very well-off family. However, this peculiar middle initial switching has also appeared in a few published papers that refer to H. G. Hubbard as "H. J.", including one by his friend and graduate advisor Herman Hagen, who surely knew who he was talking about, even if whomever transcribed his manuscript (likely written in longhand) for publication did not.

Hubbard was a fascinating person and there are Odonata records of his from Michigan we have set aside to research more thoroughly. It's another item on the to-do list that will receive a separate blog post when it gets the attention it deserves.

The Wayne County checklist is now at 96 species verified by voucher specimens. 

 

[No use of photos without permission]