Aztec Dancer

Written by Diane Beauton

Wildwood Park, Thousand Oaks, Ca. is the natural habitat for all kinds of insects that crawl and fly! On our way back down the trail we spotted a dragonfly and snapped a shot of him. Yes him...we know it's a him because of his bright neon blue color. The males, especially, are brightly colored in blue, green, yellow, orange, red and bronze neons.

What we didn't know is this was not a dragonfly but a damselfly. Now one might think 'damsel' refers to female but it does not, it refers to a smaller insect in the dragonfly family.

Since we didn't know that, we thought others might not know either and our readers might find a little information about this guy interesting.

There are approximately 450 varieties of this species but the size of the torso, color, wing placement and distance between the eyes helps to identify this one as an Argia nahuana also known as Aztec Dancer. Notice the eyes on our damselfly are set apart; whereas most dragonflies eyes touch.

Being predators, these little guys have their important place in the balancing of the ecosystem by feasting on other insects including harmful ones. They eat mosquitoes, gnats, ants, termites, spiders, bees and even butterflies. So again we learn something new about the world we share with things that crawlers and fly!