About Pantala hymenaea (Say, 1840)
Pantala hymenaea, commonly called the spot-winged glider, is a robust dragonfly species with a cylindrical abdomen and broad hindwings. It reaches a length of about 5 cm (2 in) and has a wingspan of 7.5 cm (3 in). Breeding males have red eyes and a red face. The species has an overall brown body color, and females and immature individuals have a diagonal white marking on the thorax. A small dark brown spot at the base of the hindwings distinguishes this species from the closely similar wandering glider, Pantala flavescens.
The spot-winged glider is a widespread, common dragonfly in the New World, found across North, Central, and South America. Its range covers six Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec), 45 U.S. states, 24 Mexican states, the West Indies, Central America, and most of South America, extending as far south as Argentina. It is a migratory species and a strong flier. In North America, spot-winged gliders migrate north from tropical regions in summer, and migrate south again in fall; the migrating individuals are presumed to belong to a different generation than the previous one, but overall the species' biology remains poorly studied.
The spot-winged glider is a documented predator of Anopheles freeborni, the western malaria mosquito. It feeds primarily on A. freeborni at dusk, when these mosquitoes typically swarm. Predation decreases as darkness increases, because P. hymenaea relies on visual stimuli to detect its prey.
