An odonate exuvia was collected by Cindy Haddon Andrews on 03 September 2022 along the James River, near the Maidens Boat Landing in Powhatan County, Virginia USA. External gills (3) indicate this specimen is from a damselfly in Suborder Zygoptera.
Pattern recognition can be used to tentatively identify damselfly larvae/exuviae to the family level: the shape of the prementum is characteristic for each of the three families found in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America.
Your mission, should decide to accept it, is to identify the family to which the following damselfly exuvia belongs.
The camera lens was manually focused on the prementum, located near the anterior end of the exuvia.
Here is the same photo rotated 90° clockwise.
If you think you know the family, then please leave a comment. The correct answer will be revealed in a post update.
Related Resource: How to Identify Damselfly Exuviae to Family – a photo-illustrated identification guide by Walter Sanford.
Copyright © 2022 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
Tags: exuvia, What is it?
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November 30, 2022 at 6:49 pm |
Calopterygidae! Great resource you linked to at the end of the post.
December 3, 2022 at 7:28 pm |
Thanks for the kind words, Doug!
December 1, 2022 at 11:28 am |
I seem to detect a teardrop shape near the top of the prementum so I’d guess Calopterygidae.
Fun stuff!
December 3, 2022 at 7:27 pm |
That’s good teardrop detection, Wally!