Blue-spotted Hawker - Adversaeschna brevistyla
FAMILY AESHNIDAE - Hawker
- Female, body length 50mm
This page contains information and pictures about Blue-spotted Hawker Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
This is a large dragonfly with bright-blue pattern on black, with two prominent blue stripes on each sides of the thorax. The leading edge of all wings are pale orange in colour. Its scientific name was Aeshna brevistyla and changed to Adversaeschna brevistyla lately.
- Male, body length 50mm
- In mid-summer, we took the about male photo in Karawatha Forest near the Scrubby Creek late in the afternoon. We think this is the Unicorn Darner. A visitor from Sydney sent us email advised it is a Blue-spotted Hawker. This dragonfly is much more common than the Unicorn Darner and breeds in any permanent body of water, even artificial ones like farm dams and garden pools.
- Photo by Jo McHenry, Brisbane
- Jo McHenry email us the above picture and tell us: "Today we saw the most amazing dragonfly. It was the biggest I've seen with clear zebra striping. It rested on the verandah for about five minutes then took off incredibly fast in a straight line as I turned the plant around for the third time for a better shot."
- We believe we saw this dragonfly many times in the Karawatha Forest, although every time was not so sure. This dragonfly usually hides in the shade on stem as the above left picture. Every time we saw it was when we walked pass it and it flied away fast within a second. We only found it once closely before it noticed us, and we took some better photos.
- Reference and Link:
- 1. The Australian Dragonflies - Watson, J.A.L., Theischinger, G., Abbey, H.M. 1991, CSIRO Publications, pp 178.
- 2. Aeshna brevistyla - Australian Insect Common Names, CSIRO, 2005.
- 3. Aeshna (Adversaeschna) brevistyla - Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Heritage2005.
- 4. Adversaeschna brevistyla - Blue-spotted Hawker - VICTORIAN DRAGONFLIES.
