Odonota: Dragonflies and Damsles

There are only about twenty common and widespread species and most of them (adult males) are easy to identity.

Beyond identification, Odes are fun to watch. While butterflies (Lepidoptera) are pretty, they don’t do anything. They just blow around and be pretty. Dragonflies are hyperactive foragers and propagators and, when active, are always looking for food and sex. It is incredible to watch them hunt and eat, see them roll through the air in the "wheel position" and see the females spew clouds of eggs in water or on vegetation.

So here are 12 species. Print the images and you will have your own field guide for the next year, and dazzle your friends with your Odonata knowledge.
 

Twelve-spotted Skimmer - Libellula pulchella - male	Eight-spotted Skimmer - Libellula forensis - male
Whitetail Skimmer - Libellula lydia - male	Whitetail Skimmer - Libellula lydia - female
Widow Skimmer - Libellula luctuosa - male	Widow Skimmer – Libellula luctuosa - female
Western Pondhawk – Erythemis collocata – male: note green face	Western Pondhawk – Erythemis collacata – female
Blue Dasher – Pachydiplax longipennis – male: note white face	Black Saddlebags – Tramea lacerata – male
Grappletail – Octogomphus specularis – male	Pacific Spiketail – Cordulegaster dorsalis – male
Variegated Meadowhawk – Sympetrum corruptum - male	Striped Meadowhawk – Sympetrum pallipes – male
California Darner – Aeshna californica
The Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) The skimmer is slightly larger and hunkier with a bright orangey-red wide abdomen, thorax and head. The leading edge and the basal-half of all four wings are orange.	Cardinal Meadowhawk (Sympetrum illotum) The meadowhawk is smaller and finer with a scarlet-red narrow abdomen, orangey thorax and head, and red eyes. Only the leading edge of each wing is reddish, leaving most of the flying surface veined-transparency.