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Widow
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| Description |
1 5/8-2", wingspan
1 1/8-3 1/2". Body dark brown, sometimes with yellow stripes on sides;
thorax somewhat hairy. Fore and hind wings blackish brown up to halfway
toward tip; wing tips clear or smoky-brown, especially in female.
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| Habitat |
Near ponds, small lakes,
and marshes.
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| Range |
Ontario and Atlantic
Coast to Georgia and Gulf Coast, west to Texas and northern Mexico, north
to South Dakota.
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| Food |
Adults eat smaller flying
insects. Naiad feed on small aquatic insects.
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| Life Cycle |
Female, often unattended
by male, drops eggs into pond water. Naiads Crawl a few feet or more from
water, cling to vegetation, and emerge as adults in April in the South,
in late summer in the North.
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Other
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These slow-flying dragonflies are easy to catch with a net. Their wings are disproportionately large, making these insects look bigger than they are. Adults hang below bare twigs of pondside shurbbery. |