Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly

The color, the striped abdomen, the posture. Even the behavior. At first glance, you might think you’re looking at a wasp. Look closer and you see it’s a dragonfly. A tiny dragonfly. An eastern amberwing dragonfly, Perithemis tenera.

Eastern amberwings are the second smallest dragonfly found in North America. Only the elfin dragonfly, Nannothemis bella, is smaller. (The elfin is also the second-smallest in the world.)

And the wasp mimickery is no accident. Eastern amberwings even fly like wasps. When you’re small, sometimes it helps to play “big” in order to survive.

How small are eastern amberwings? Typically between 21 and 24 millimeters long, less than an inch. We’re not dragonfly experts by any means, but the first eastern amberwing we spied had us stratching our head as to what it was. The unusual looks definitely caught our eye, and fortunately, our new friend stayed put until we figured out that it was a tiny dragonfly.

Eastern amberwings overall are amber colored, as the name suggests. Males have clear amber wings with red stigmas along the leading edge of the forewings. The wings on females are blotchy brown on an amber background, and the stigmas are red-brown.

The abdomens on both sexes are ringed, alternating brown and orange segments, similar to the abdomens of wasps.

Eastern amberwings are found in the eastern two-thirds of the United States, their range extending south into Mexico. It has a look-alike in called the slough amberwing, Perithemis domitia. The easiest tell between the two: the eastern has pale yellow legs, while the slough has dark legs.

Eastern amberwings are found in sunny spots along quiet waters, ponds, lakes, marshes, slow-moving rivers and streams. They tend to fly low to the water and perch on low vegetation near the shoreline. They’re known to inhabitat areas away from water and perch on flowers, unlike most other dragonflies. We found the one featured at the top of this page in Lantana Scrub Natural Area well away from water. We’ve also seen them in Big Cypress National Preserve on the edge of open water.

Males are territorial. They’ll find a spot suitable for reproducing — a place with a lot of aquatic weeds — and if necessary, vigorously defending their turf against other males of the same species by darting out at intruders. If a female eastern amberwing ambles nearby, the male will lead her to his territory and woo her by swaying back and forth and raising his abdomen at an angle. If she decides everything is good, they’ll mate.

She’ll deposit her eggs — many as 150 of the them — into the water. The naiads, or nymphs, will go through various instars, or stages of development until they become adults and leave the water. As both youngins’ and adults, they are hunters going after others insects we humans consider pests, including mosquitos, ants — and wasps.

Adults hunt while in flight, but will perch to eat their meal.

Eastern amberwings are active year-round in warmer parts of their range, including South Florida, summer species farther north.

Eastern amberwings are members of Libellulidae, the skimmer dragonfly family.

Lantana Scrub Natural Area