Sympetrum corruptum

Adult: This widespread meadowhawk is largely tan or gray with a pale face that is tan to yellowish in young females and males but becomes red in mature males. Males are often variable in color, from olive-green to tan or gray with a reddish-brown abdomen that turns redder as it matures. The abdomen has a chain of white spots low on each side with a black line bordering them dorsally and the thorax has two lateral (side) white stripes that are not always complete as well as a distinct round yellow spot at the lower end of each stripe. The yellow spots always remain visible, but the white stripes become obscured in mature males. Females and juveniles are similar but less red (more tan) and more muted in color. Both sexes exhibit anterior orange wing veins and have black legs with yellow lateral stripes. At close range this dragonfly is easily identified, but identification at a distance can be difficult because its gray color and medium size make it similar in appearance to other dragonflies. The abdominal pattern and orange wing veins are distinctive characters in both sexes. The legs are dark brown to black except on their outer surfaces. The eyes are grayish to cranberry or reddish-orange. Total length: 1.26-1.69 inches (32-43 mm); abdomen: 1.02-1.14 inches (26-29 mm); hindwing: 1.06-1.30 inches (27-33 mm).|Similar Species: The body is generally more gray than other meadowhawks, the color pattern is brighter, and the body shape is chunkier. The species is recognized easily by the pattern of almost rectangular spots of brown and red on the abdomen (brown and white in females), the yellow lower ends of the white thoracic stripes, as well as the characteristic orange wing veins. Other western meadowhawks with orange wing veins include the striped meadowhawk, Sympetrum pallipes, and cardinal meadowhawk, Sympetrum illotum, both of which lack black stripes dorsally on abdominal segments 8-9. The striped meadowhawk also lacks yellow spots laterally on the thorax. Stripes on the red-veined meadowhawk are all white and legs are all black with amber- or brown-tinted wings.|Nymph: Nymphs are very difficult to differentiate from similar species. Eyes are large and occupy about half the length of the head and do not protrude above the contour of the head capsule. Paraprocts and cerci (= paired appendages at the tip of the abdomen) are straight in lateral view. Lateral spines are present on abdominal segments 8-9, each distinctly less than 1/3 the length of their respective segments. The abdomen is tapering, not truncated. This species differs from other species of Sympetrum in that the abdomen does not have dorsal hooks.

The variegated meadowhawk is a widespread dragonfly of the United States and Canada, especially the western two-thirds of the continent. Its total range includes British Columbia east to southern Ontario; south, in the west, to Mexico (including Baja California, Coahuila, Sonora, and Tamaulipas), Honduras, and Belize but rare in the eastern United States particularly north of New Jersey although frequently wandering into the southern Atlantic Slope. It is known from Sable Island, Nova Scotia and extreme northeastern Asia in Russian Far East (Sea of Okhotsk).

This species tends to spend more time on the ground than other meadowhawks. It is found in a variety of habitats, but is most common around still water of ponds, lakes, and slow streams of nearly all kinds. It can also breed in temporary brackish ponds but is more at home in sand bottomed ponds in arid, barren surroundings.

Females lay eggs, accompanied by males in tandem, over wide areas in open waters or on algae of ponds and lakes. Males defend territories over water. The species has a very long flight season and can be encountered every month of the year in the south. Some flight periods recorded in northern latitudes are June through August in Massachusetts, from late March to mid-May and mid-September to mid-November in Oklahoma, mid-February to mid-October in Oregon, early May to early November in Washington, and May to September in British Columbia. The species is migratory, with large movements along the Pacific Coast, and in southern Florida and the Florida Keys in the fall, but some individuals may overwinter.