Southern Hawker
Aeshna cyanea
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Inquisitive to the point of rudeness — it will hover a foot from your face to look at you.
A large, handsome hawker, dark with bright apple-green markings: two broad green stripes on top of the thorax and, distinctively, green rather than blue bands across the last abdominal segments in both sexes. Southern hawkers have spread north and are found around garden ponds, woodland rides and sheltered still water in the Dumfries area.
Behaviour
This is the dragonfly most likely to investigate a person: it hovers close, moves its head to look, then carries on hunting. It is very tolerant of shade and will hunt along woodland paths well away from water into the evening. It breeds happily in small garden ponds — even ones with no fish and little open water — which is part of why it has spread so successfully.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Hawkers (Aeshnidae)
- Size
- Body 67–76 mm
- Status
- Native; expanding north
Photo by Ebertakis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons