Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Common Green Darner (Anax junius) -- Male


(Photo by Jo on 10/18/09)



A common dragonfly found throughout the United States and most of Canada. The large black spot in front of the eyes is distinctive for this species and is found on both males and females. Please see BugGuide for more identification characteristics.

A close up of the genitalia indicates this is a male Common Green Darner. For comparison, please see this image of female genitalia on BugGuide.

Adult A. junius are strong fliers and can be found just about everywhere, though they do have a preference for area near larval habitat: Still marshy waters, fresh and slightly brackish. We've seen several of these dragonflies over the past few days though our ridge does not qualify as prime larval habitat. I suppose they were just migrating through our area.










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13 comments:

  1. Lisa at Greenbow6:06 AM, October 21, 2009

    Great photos. I love the color of this guy.

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  2. laughingwolf12:24 PM, October 21, 2009

    always see these as tiny helicopters ;)

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  3. SAPhotographs (Joan)1:17 AM, October 22, 2009

    This was a good one Jo took. What a lovely dragon and info Marvin.

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  4. Anonymous11:51 AM, October 22, 2009

    So educational. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work dragonfly genitalia into a conversation.

    I'm not sure whether it's good or bad that I know and talk to many people who'd be interested.

    Thanks for sharing the great photos of the tiny flying dragons.

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  5. Marvin12:21 PM, October 22, 2009

    One must choose one's friends carefully, Wren. :-)

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  6. Lana Gramlich1:06 PM, October 22, 2009

    These are common in our area. I remember one sunset at a local marsh there were literally thousands of them all around. It was just amazing. They're very pretty.

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  7. Birdy Official1:54 PM, October 22, 2009

    It's beautiful. Nice details both in pictures and words.

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  8. Anonymous4:10 PM, October 22, 2009

    Magnificent. Good macro photography.

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  9. Louise9:43 PM, October 22, 2009

    Excellent picture. I will always look more closely at the dragonflies I see after this one.

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  10. Texas Travelers2:04 PM, October 23, 2009

    Great photo and post of the Darner.

    Thanks for the nice comments.

    Troy

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  11. John B.8:49 PM, October 23, 2009

    Nice shot of the darner. I see these mostly in the fall, possibly because that's their migration period.

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  12. Mary9:19 PM, October 23, 2009

    That's a pretty one! Terrific macro shot, Marvin.

    (Thanks so much for your hornet ID!)

    Mary

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  13. Deb10:52 PM, October 23, 2009

    One of my favorite favorites. ;-) Wonderful.

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