Nebraska Dragonflies and Damselflies

Calico Pennant

Celithemis elisa

Hagen, 1861

The Calico Pennant male has a large red spot at the base of each hindwing and smaller brown spots in the middle and tip of each wing. It also has red triangular spots on the top of the abdominal segments, a red face and red stigmas. The females and young males have brownish yellow markings where the adult male's are red.

Fairly common. This is an eastern species coming west as far as centralTexas, Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, western Iowa. Its range now spans the whole state of Nebraska. It is a conspicuous and easilycollected species and is one of the few that clearly represents arecent invasion. It is frequently found at borrow pit ponds, so thehighway construction, particularly I-80, that produced these pondsmay have accelerated the invasion.

Green indicates accepted county record (specimen or photograph).
Yellow indicates sight record only.