Smoky Rubyspot

About the Smoky Rubyspot

The Smoky Rubyspot is a broad-winged damselfly of shaded rivers and streams, and one of the most variable insects in its family. Males have a dark, bronzy body and wings washed with smoky brown, usually darkest toward the base where a deep ruby-red tint shows in good light. Some individuals, especially late in the season, have wings that are almost entirely dark. Females are paler, with amber wings that darken toward the tips.

Rubyspots belong to the same family as the jewelwings, and they share the habit of perching on sunlit twigs and leaves that overhang moving water. Males defend small territories along the bank, displaying to females with a fluttering flight that flashes the wing color. After mating, the female often climbs down a plant stem to lay eggs below the waterline, sometimes staying submerged for many minutes.

The larvae are long-legged, slender hunters that cling to roots and debris in the current. Across Central and East Texas the Smoky Rubyspot is a characteristic late-summer and fall species, often outnumbering the American Rubyspot on the same stream by September.

This male was photographed at Hornsby Bend in Travis County on September 4, 2025, along the wooded edge of the Colorado River.