
Gossamer Wings

by Peggy King
Comments (7)

Robin McLeod
Neighbours, yes! I visit Petrolia regularly and have small displays of my photo cards at Helen's Hideaway and Trinidi's Parable downtown.

Robin McLeod
Technically, any dragonfly with wings is an adult, but their adult appearance changes as they age. This is an young adult male Widow Skimmer that still shows yellow in its abdomen, like this one: http://bugguide.net/node/view/64305 Later, the tip will begin to turn blue like this one: http://bugguide.net/node/view/121779 and a middle-aged male will have a completely blue abdomen like this: http://bugguide.net/node/view/833437 and then the abdomen becomes almost white in old males like this: http://bugguide.net/node/view/426388 at which time they are sometimes mistaken for male Common Whitetails.
Peggy King replied:
Thanks for your comments and the information, Robin! I see we are practically neighbours. ;-)

Peggy King
Thanks for your comment, and for your identification of this fellow, Nina... I did a search and agree it is an adult male Widow Skimmer.

Nina Stavlund
I think this is a Widow Skimmer and because of all the white in the wings, it should be a full adult. Nice capture :o)