Rambur's forktail
{{Short description|Species of damselfly}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Rambur's Forktail Ischnura ramburii JG.jpg
| image_caption = Male in Florida, USA
| image2 = Rambur's forktail (Ischnura ramburii) female orange-form.JPG
| image2_caption = Female, orange-form
Both on Grand Cayman
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Ischnura
| species = ramburii
| authority = (Selys, 1850)
| synonyms = *Ischnura credula (Hagen, 1861)
| synonyms_ref = {{ITIS|id=102084|access-date=22 July 2023|taxon=Ischnura ramburii}}
}}
Rambur's forktail (Ischnura ramburii) is a member of the damselfly family Coenagrionidae. Males are green with blue on abdominal segments 8 and 9. Females are orange-red, olive green, or similar to males in coloration.{{Cite book |title=Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States |last=Abbott |first=J. C. |year=2005 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-11364-5 |page=140}} This is the most widespread New World Ischnura, occurring throughout the Americas from the United States to Chile, as well as Hawaii and the Antilles.{{cite web|url=http://bugguide.net/node/view/607|author1=Thomas, A.W.|author2=Balaban, J.|author3=Balaban, J.|title=Ischnura ramburii|website=BugGuide.net|date=3 November 2011|orig-date=Originally published online 16 February 2004|access-date=22 July 2023}}
Habitat
Ponds, lakes, marshes, and slow streams with vegetation and sunlight are its main habitat.
Damselfly nymphs never live in salt water, but I. ramburii nymphs have been observed in brackish and even sulphurous waters.{{Cite journal
| title = Part II: Catalogue of the Odonata (Dragonflies) of the Vicinity of Philadelphia
| last = Calvert | first = P. P
| authorlink = Philip Powell Calvert
| publisher = American Entomological Society
|journal=Transactions of the American Entomological Society
|volume=20
| date = October 1893
| page = 204
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZS1DAAAAYAAJ&q=ramburii&pg=PP1
}}
Mating
File:Rambur%27s_forktail_damselflies_(Ischnura_ramburii).JPG
John Edward Lloyd qualified the mating of this species as "enigmatic": the male grasps the female's head with the terminal appendages of its abdomen while the female seeks and absorbs the sperm with its gonopore. He hypothesised that this "wheel" could have evolved in order to prevent females from escaping during the copulation.{{cite journal
| last=Lloyd | first=J. E.
| authorlink=John Edward Lloyd
| title=Mating Behavior and Natural Selection
| journal=The Florida Entomologist
| date=March 1979
| volume=62
| issue=1
| pages=17–34
| url=http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/57338/55017
| doi=10.2307/3494039
| jstor=3494039
}}
Etymology
Edmond de Sélys Longchamps named this damselfly in honor of Jules Pierre Rambur,{{Cite web
| title = A Checklist of North American Odonata
| last1 = Paulson | first1 = D. R. | last2 = Dunkle | first2=S. W.
|date=14 April 2009
| page=21
|url=https://odonata.bogfoot.net/docs/NA_Odonata_Checklist_2009_updated.pdf|access-date=22 July 2023|publisher=Jim Johnson|via=odonata.bugfoot.net}}
an entomologist 12 years his senior. Rambur's collection of insects was one of several that was incorporated into that of Sélys.