Twelve-spotted skimmer
The Twelve-spotted skimmer is a species of dragonfly known for its distinctive appearance, featuring ten white spots on its wings and a brown body with white hairs and yellow stripes on the thorax. It is commonly found near bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams throughout North America. Typically measuring between 2 and 2.5 inches long, this dragonfly has two pairs of wings that span 3 to 3.5 inches. Active from April to October, both male and female Twelve-spotted skimmers engage in aerial mating, forming a circle as they grasp each other's thorax. After mating, females lay eggs over underwater vegetation, leading to the hatching of larvae known as naiads, which can spend weeks to years growing in the water before emerging as adults. These naiads are adept predators, using specialized jaws to capture small aquatic creatures. The Twelve-spotted skimmer is part of the Libellulidae family, sharing its habitat with other dragonflies, including the four-spot pond skimmer. Overall, this species has a lifespan of less than one year, completing a life cycle that is both fascinating and critical to aquatic ecosystems.
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Twelve-spotted skimmer
This dragonfly species is named for the 10 white spots on its wings and for its habit of hovering and skimming near the water’s surface. It lives near ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams all across North America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: Libellulidae
Genus: Libellula
Species: Pulchella
One of the widespread species of dragonflies in North America is the twelve-spotted skimmer. Lakes, rivers, reservoirs, streams, and ponds are the sites to see this insect as it skims and hovers low over the water's surface. It appears to rest very little as it hunts for flying insects to scoop into its legs.
An adult of this species is brown. It has white hairs on its thorax, the body segment just behind the head. Two yellow stripes run along the sides of the thorax and the abdomen, or the lower body, which on this insect is long, slender, and round and looks like a tail. This insect's body style is similar to that of other dragonflies and damselflies and generally looks like a helicopter. From the head to the tip of the abdomen, the ten-spot pond skimmer is between 2 and 2 1/2 inches (five and six centimeters) long.
The two pairs of wings on this dragonfly are attached to the top of the thorax. They are 3 to 3 1/2 inches (eight to nine centimeters) from tip to tip. Twelve-spotted skimmers have twelve brown spots on their wings. On each of the four wings are three large brown spots, but it is the chalky white spots on each wing between the brown spots for which the insect is named. Each front wing has two spots and each rear wing has three. Males have eight more white spots on their wings.
The male and female are active between April and October. Toward the end of this time, the male and female mate in the air. They form a circle as each bends its body to grasp the other's thorax with the tip of its abdomen. After mating, the female drops her eggs over underwater vegetation. Soon after this, the adults die. From each egg hatches a larva called a nymph or naiad. The naiad has a long, hairy body that tapers gradually toward the tip of the abdomen. It is wingless and spends a few weeks or up to one or two years crawling on the bottom. This period depends on food supplies and water temperatures. Like other dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, the ten-spot nymph preys upon small water-dwelling creatures it catches in its special lower jaws. It can spring these jaws forward in a fraction of a second and seize its prey with hooks.
During this time in the water, the nymph grows by molting, or shedding, its skin, growing a larger one each time underneath the old one. Eventually, it is ready to crawl from the water onto a plant, rock, or other object sticking from the water. It molts again and has wings and an adult body. As an adult, it feeds, mates, and dies just as did its parents.
The twelve-spotted skimmer and the similar four-spot pond skimmer (Libellula quadrimaculata) are just two dragonfly species in the largest family of dragonflies in the United States and Canada.
Twelve-spotted skimmers live for less than one year.
Bibliography
"Dragonfly." A-Z Animals, 4 Oct. 2023, a-z-animals.com/animals/dragonfly. Accessed 15 May 2024.
"Twelve-spotted Skimmer - Libellula Pulchella." Montana Field Guide, fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=iiodo45130. Accessed 15 May 2024.
"Twelve-Spotted Skimmer." Missouri Department of Conservation, mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/twelve-spotted-skimmer. Accessed 15 May 2024.