checkered setwing

checkered setwing (Dythemis fugax) [female]
Photo © Mary Kay Rubey

FEATURES
The checkered setwing has a reddish brown, black, and white pattern with dark brown wing patches and dark veins. Males have red faces and eyes over red and grey. The thorax is red-brown with black markings and pale grey on the lower sides. The male abdomen is black with beige streaks at the base and a pair of longer spots on segment seven. The female has a tan face with red eyes over blue-grey. The female thorax has many brown stripes. The abdomen is black with white markings at the bases of segments two through seven, and a black at the tip of the tail. Female wings are marked the same as the male, and have dark, narrow tips.

BEHAVIOR
Males perch along the shore on twigs or actively float over the water, flying back and forth over small pools. Two males might race in rapid, long parallel flights. Mating is brief and in flight. The female leaves the water after and returns later. They like slow streams, rivers, and open lakes or ponds with low trees and shrubs along the shore in mostly open country. They are found barely in southeast Illinois, swooping just inside the border with Missouri. They range west to southern Arizona and south into Mexico.

​Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Family: Libellulidae