Variable Dancer

About the Variable Dancer

Variable Dancer earns its name honestly: it is one of the most color-variable damselflies in its genus, with mature males ranging from violet-purple to blue depending on subspecies and individual variation, while the scientific name fumipennis, meaning smoky-winged, refers to the faintly tinted wings shown by some populations, particularly the violet-colored form sometimes recognized as a distinct subspecies. This variability has made the species a long-running subject of interest for people trying to sort out dancer identification in the field.

Regardless of exact coloration, Variable Dancers share the general Argia body plan: a slender frame, a thorax patterned with pale and dark stripes, and a mostly dark abdomen. Females are typically duller, often brownish or grayish, which is typical of the genus and makes males the more reliable subject for identification.

This species is found around ponds, lake margins, and slow-flowing streams with reasonable amounts of shoreline or emergent vegetation, where adults perch on plants, rocks, or bare ground close to the water. Like other dancers, it hunts by making short flights from a perch to catch small flying insects such as gnats and midges, returning afterward to consume its catch and watch for the next opportunity.

Breeding follows the pattern typical of the genus: males and females pair in tandem, with the male often continuing to grip the female behind the head while she lays eggs into submerged plant tissue, a guarding behavior that helps protect his paternity of the resulting eggs. The nymphs that hatch live underwater among vegetation and debris, feeding on small aquatic invertebrates as they grow through several molts before eventually climbing out of the water to emerge as winged adults. Because Variable Dancer tolerates a fairly wide range of still and slow-moving water habitats, it is one of the more broadly distributed dancers likely to turn up at everyday ponds as well as larger streams across Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, most individuals show blue rather than the violet coloration associated with subspecies found farther east, though some regional variation in male color intensity has been noted by observers comparing populations across the species' broad range. This kind of intraspecific color variation is part of what originally earned the species its common name.