Substrate utilization during reproduction by Argia plana Calvert and Argia moesta (Hagen) (Odonata: Coenagrionidae)

Most reproductive features such as: absence of courtship, tandem intra-male sperm translocation, tandem oviposition, interactions during oviposition, and oviposition time, were essentially similar in Argia plana Calvert and Argia moesta (Hagen), studied simultaneously at a 144 m stretch of Cowan Creek in southern Oklahoma. On the other hand, sperm translocation and copulation were closer to water and briefer in moesta. Also, the two species oviposited in different substrates; plana in Nasturtium and debris, moesta only in surface Salix roots whose lower portions were used by Hetaerina americana (Fabricius) for submerged oviposition. The three species were able to occupy the same small area primarily because each used different substrates for perching and oviposition. The adaptable moesta successfully invaded the area by laying eggs in the previously unutilized surface Salix roots.