Darner Dragonfly

There are six different families of dragonflies that we see here in Minnesota. They are the Libellulidae, or skimmers, Gomphidae, or clubtail, Cordulegastridae, or spiketail, Corduliidae, or emeralds, Macromiidae, or cruisers, and the Aeshnidae, or the darners. The skimmers are probably the most common around here but we also see a lot of darners too.

Darners are big dragonflies with a large thorax, thin abdomen and large eyes that meet each other across the top of the head. There are 39 different types of darners in North America and we see 19 different types around where I live. Some of the darners are easy to identify, like the common green darner, but many of the blue darners look very similar. Typically the only way to identify most of the blue darners is by the pattern of side stripes on the thorax. Unfortunately this darner, that I photographed at Park Point in Duluth in September, did not give me an opportunity to get a very good picture of the side of its thorax and so I can not tell which type of darner that it is.