cherry-faced meadowhawk

cherry-faced meadowhawk (Sympetrum internum)
Photo © Mary Kay Rubey

FEATURES
Cherry-faced meadowhawks are small with red faces, colored veins on the wings, black legs, and noticeable black markings on the sides of the abdomen. Males have red eyes with pale green shading below with bright red thorax and abdomen and a red face in most. Some individuals of the New England population have tan faces. Black triangles widen to rectangles on the lower sides of abdominal segments four through nine. Western populations have yellow-orange veins on the wing, while Eastern populations have darker veins. Females have red-brown eyes over tan and a tan face, thorax, and abdomen with a continuous black stripe on the higher sides at the second and third segments and lower on the sides between the fourth through ninth. Some females have red on the upper surface of the eyes, thorax, and abdomen.

BEHAVIOR
Males have small territories over dry, grassy basins, often near each other. Mating is typically lengthy. Egg laying is either tandem or solo with dropping eggs from knee height on dried pond basins, clustering at one spot. Sometimes eggs are laid in wet lawn grasses. They like lake edges and shallow marsh-like temporary ponds that dry during summers. They range throughout Illinois. They are found from east to west across Canada to Alaska, and the northwest, then south to northern California, northern New Mexico, Kentucky, and Virginia.

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