Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly

The ebony jewelwing is a striking broad-winged damselfly found along wooded streams in eastern North America. Males have a brilliant metallic green to blue-black body and completely black wings, while females share the same metallic body coloring but have smoky brown wings marked with a small white spot, called a pseudostigma, near each wingtip.

Unlike the fast, direct flight of many dragonflies, the ebony jewelwing has a slow, fluttering flight pattern reminiscent of a butterfly, often flitting along stream banks and pausing on overhanging vegetation with its wings held together above the body, a resting posture typical of damselflies. Both the aquatic nymphs and terrestrial adults are predators, making this species an important link in the food webs of clean, shaded woodland streams.

• Slender, elongated body with brilliant metallic green to blue-black coloring in good light
• Males have entirely black wings; females have smoky brown wings each marked with a small white pseudostigma spot near the tip
• Wings held closed together above the body at rest, distinguishing it from true dragonflies, which rest with wings spread
• Fluttering, buoyant flight style compared to the fast, darting flight of most dragonflies
• Found perched on vegetation directly along the water's edge in shaded stream corridors

Ebony jewelwings are closely tied to shaded, slow to moderately flowing streams within or near wooded areas across eastern North America, from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast states. Adults are typically seen from late spring through summer, rarely straying far from the stream corridor where they developed.

Adults are active daytime predators, catching small flying insects such as midges and mosquitoes on the wing near the stream. Males defend territories along favored stretches of stream bank, performing fluttering courtship displays for visiting females. The aquatic nymphs are likewise predatory, hunting small invertebrates among submerged roots, leaf litter, and debris, and both life stages are sensitive indicators of good water quality due to their reliance on clean, well-shaded streams.

Females lay eggs into the stems of aquatic or waterside plants, sometimes submerging part of their body to do so. The aquatic nymphs hatch and develop over one to two years, molting through numerous instars while hunting small invertebrates among stream debris. When ready to transform, the mature nymph climbs out of the water onto streamside vegetation, where the adult damselfly emerges, expands its wings, and hardens before taking flight to begin its adult life along the same stream.