Lilypad Forktail: The colonization of Ohio continues

As always, click the image to enlarge it

A mating pair of Lilypad Forktails (Ischnura kellicottii) at Bear Creek Lake in Shawnee State Forest, Scioto County, Ohio. Male blue, female orange. The reddish globules on the female's thorax are larval mites (the male has some as well). Mites commonly infest damselflies.

The forktails are on the leaf of a Fragrant Water-lily (Nymphaea odorata), a plant that they are intimately associated with. I checked this site thoroughly for Lilypad Forktails two summers ago, saw none, and do not think any were yet present. On a visit this year on August 3, they were everywhere. A later check of iNaturalist showed that someone found them here last year (so much for my Scioto County record). So, 2021 - no forktails; 2022, some appear; and 2023 - thriving population. This small lake is deep within Shawnee State Forest, and how these tiny damselflies find such a remote site and so rapidly colonize it is a mystery to me.

It wasn't long ago that this southern damselfly was quite rare in Ohio. Our first record dates to 1992, and for a long time Lilypad Forktails were only known from that Williams County site. Now they have been documented in 20 counties, and I wouldn't be surprised to find them anywhere that Fragrant Water-lily colonies occur. This is one of a number of southern damselfly/dragonfly species that are rapidly expanding northward.