User:Madisoncamille23/sandbox

This is a purple skimmer photographed in Florida. This image depicts the bluish-purple thorax and abdomen and orange hue wings.

The purple skimmer (Libellula jesseana) is a dragonfly of the skimmer family in the order odonata. It is primarily found in the clear, sandy-bottomed lakes. The species is also endemic to Florida, United States and is rather uncommon to see. The skimmer family gets their name from their habit of skimming water and dipping their abdomen into the water in the aquatic environment they inhabit to disperse their eggs.

Anatomy and Appearance

The male body plan of the purple skimmer includes a bluish-purple thorax and abdomen with wings that have an orange hue. The females coloration can be similar to that of the males or it can mimic the coloration of the golden-winged skimmer (Libellula auripennis) which is has a golden-yellow hue on its head, thorax, abdomen, and wings.

They have large eyes in order to keep pace with their flying patterns that take up most of the head region. The average size of the body is roughly five centimeters in length.

Habitat

Requires infertile sand-bottomed lakes with shallow water and few grasses as well as other photosynthetic plants (like maiden-cane grass and St. John's Wort Shrubs) in the littoral zone of the lake. The adults require open woodland or shrub-land for foraging opportunities.

This species is also only present in ten counties in the panhandle and northern peninsula of Florida, specifically in the central and western counties is Florida. There is a protected population at Gold Head Branch State Park in Clay County.

Behaviors

Reproduction

The L. jesseana is part of a family of dragonflies called skimmers which are a family of dimorphic colorful dragonflies. Purple skimmers like most skimmers are named so because of how close they fly to the water and skim the top of the water. During the skimming process, fertilized females will occasionally dip their abdomens into the water and deposit their eggs or they will deposit them on floating vegetation.

Predation and Diet

Both the adult and immature purple skimmers are invertivores. The nymphs feed on nearly all small invertebrate organisms in their aquatic environment, whereas the adults tend to catch insects by using their speed and sensitive eyes to hone in on the prey.

Phenology

The adult purple skimmers have a diurnal phenology with a flight season from the end of April to mid September. They larvae over winter and have a life cycle of roughly one year.

Threats to the Population

Primarily threatened due to human population growth in Florida near lake and shrub-land areas. Due to population growth and the inhabitation of lake areas by humans eutrophication sets in from fertilizers and septic tank outflows allowing the purple skimmer to be outcompeted by it's close relative L. auripennis. The long term trend expectation is a decline of 30-70% of the population due to development of land and degradation of water quality.

Management

The management strategies regarding L. jesseana are to simply compare their aspects of ecology, lifestyle, and genetic makeup to that of L. auripennis. The eggs being reared by L. jesseana females should also be monitored to see the resulting male progeny to look for L. auripennis as they are the primary dragon fly to out compete L. jesseana.

Mechanical thinning of lake grass occupied by other dragon fly species should be evaluated to see if the L. jesseana could establish in those areas as well.