Diet

• Telebasis salva is a small predatory damselfly. Adults capture mosquitoes, flies, and other small flying insects, usually around emergent vegetation.

• The aquatic larvae are also predators, feeding on small aquatic invertebrates and insect larvae. Larvae commonly occur among submerged aquatic plants.

Range

• Telebasis salva, the Desert Firetail, ranges from the southwestern and southern United States through Mexico and Central America to Colombia and Venezuela.

• The species is suitable for the Zihuatanejo region, particularly at sunny freshwater sites with abundant aquatic vegetation.

Habitat

• It is primarily associated with shallow ponds, marshes, slow-moving water, and quiet backwaters with abundant floating or emergent vegetation. It is not restricted to desert environments despite its common name.

• Adults often perch among grasses and emergent plants. In North American populations, males are particularly active around the water during the late morning and afternoon.

• Around Zihuatanejo, suitable habitat includes sunny ponds, seasonal wetlands, slow stream margins, cattle ponds, and vegetated pools within tropical dry forest and surrounding open country.

Description

• Telebasis salva is a very small, slender damselfly, approximately 24–29 mm long.

• Mature males are strikingly red to orange-red, with red eyes and a predominantly red abdomen. The thorax has contrasting black markings, including a broad dark dorsal stripe and darker lateral markings.

• Females are generally more brownish or reddish-brown, with more subdued abdominal colouring and contrasting dark rings toward the end of the abdomen.

• The abdomen is relatively long for such a small damselfly and extends noticeably beyond the tips of the wings when the insect is at rest. The combination of its tiny size, bright red male coloration, and lack of black markings at the abdominal tip helps distinguish it from other firetails.