Field Guide

The common green darner is abundant and well-known for its bright green, blue, and purple colors. A large dragonfly up to 3 inches long, it is a migratory species that travels south in autumn.

The eastern pondhawk is a common and well-known large dragonfly of ponds and other standing water. Females are green with dark-banded abdomen. Mature males are blue with green face and thorax.

The spangled skimmer grows to nearly 2 inches long. Each of the 4 wings has a white spot beside a black spot on the outer leading edge. Males are blue with a dark head. Females are dark brown with lengthwise yellow stripes.

Blue dasher males and females look quite different. Both have a white face, a black abdomen tip, and slanted black and yellow stripes on the thorax. But males are blue and females are striped black and yellow.

The male blue corporal has a rather dark blue body, a black head, and dark marks at the wing bases. Females and young males are brownish and have two short "corporal" stripes on the side of the thorax, behind the eye.

The slaty skimmer has a body about 2 inches long. Older males are all slate blue with black heads. Young males and females have brown abdomens and a dark stripe running down the back.

The twelve-spotted skimmer has twelve brown wing spots. Males, like this one, have eight additional spots that are white. Females lack the white spots.

Spider wasps in genus Entypus are bluish black and usually have some amount of amber color on their dark, smoky wings. Some species have bright yellow antennae.

The six-spotted tiger beetle is probably the most familiar tiger beetle in Missouri. It’s most often seen in spring, as it darts in and out of trails just ahead of hikers.

The pronghorn clubtail is one of several members of its genus in our area that are generally difficult to identify. Like other dragonflies, it is an aerial predator that hunts insects on the wing.