Common Green Darner

This Common Green Darner was discovered resting on a Tree Lantana around 6pm on a Wednesday evening. He did not move and, thinking it was dead 24 hours later, I tried to scrape it off into a box when I discovered it was alive. It remained there at least 36 hours and left some time the next Friday after 8am.

These are some of the larger, if not the largest dragonflies that I see around here. I've watched them fly great distances and rarely see them land. They are pretty common around a large pond near my house and can be seen patrolling the banks regularly. I also see them hunting in the trees and high grass and weeds in my open field.

Once in a while, usually in the early morning, I happen to spook one up from the weeds where it may have been feeding or just resting. Photo opportunities are rare, for me so far anyway, but I was able to get a few when I watched a large adult male land about 100 feet away and was able to sneak up on him. I got close enough to touch him (after I took several photos) and noticed he was missing part of his left front leg.

The males ... read moreare beautifully colored and both sexes have a "bulls eye" marking in front of their eyes. When cool, the blue stripes change to purple and may become so dark as to blend in with the dorsal stripe to give a uniform purplish abdomen.