[9] Most species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of South and Central America, with only H. americana, H. titia, and H. vulnerata ranging further north than Mexico.

[11] In general, female Hetaerinae are observed to have pale brown wings and cryptically patterned bodies,[13] making them hard to identify for many species of the genus.

[14] Damselflies are an important study system for sexual selection research because they exhibit a broad diversity of reproductive behaviors.

[11] Once having reached sexual maturity (denoted by completed production of fat reserves and muscle content), male rubyspots move to water sites to begin competition for mating territories.

[19] The existence of alternative mating strategies within Hetaerinae presents another reason for their popularity among sexual and evolutionary ecological researchers.

As explained above, rubyspots exhibit highly aggressive male-male competition for access to mating territories resulting in the emergence of alternative reproductive behaviors.

[16] Competitor recognition of male wing pigmentation has been shown to be one of the primary divergent traits between sympatric species pairs within Hetaerina.

Interestingly, female mate recognition within sympatric species appears to be unaffected by dissimilarity in wing pigmentation, making the character displacement a result of interspecific competition alone.

[26] The intrasexual nature of variations in wing pigmentation contribute to the many characteristics of male rubyspots resulting from male-male competition and aggression.

For those in sympatry with H. americana, this is accompanied by considerably low genetic flow between sympatric populations and thus indicates reproductive isolation.

[30] While the mechanisms of this isolation are yet to be fully determined, the genetic differentiation between certain populations points to the possibility of H. americana being a complex of cryptic species.

[30][29] This theory is supported by a recently discovered species, H. calverti, that is reproductively isolated from H. americana but shows very little interspecific trait variation otherwise.