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Common skimmer?
Hi folks,
Just found your wonderful site today whilst searching for an identification of a bug my mother took a picture of. She called it a "butterfly" much to my amusement, but upon searching the net, I have been able to identify it as some kind of skimmer, but I haven’t been able to find that much info on this family of dragonfly. Can you help us out? I live in Southwestern BC.
Thanks very much!
Shannon

Hi Shannon,
Your dragonfly looks like a female White Tail, Plathemis lydia. The male has a gleaming white abdomen, but the female’s is brown with rows of yellow spots. The wings of both have broad dark band near the tip and a small black area at the base. It ranges from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to California , and north to British Columbia.

Update (01/29/2006)
odonata
Hi, my name is Larry Hamrin. While researching dragonflies, I came across your site. I don’t consider myself an expert at identifying dragonflies, but I would like to comment on some of the dragonflies on your website. The dragonfly you identify as a female common whitetail looks to me to be a young male without the purinose coating. I identified as a male based on wing pattern. The male has a white tail because of a waxy like coating it aquires with age. The coating covers the markings on the abdomen. An immature white tail would not have this coating. Here is a website that shows an immature white tail. This is a phtograph of a female Common White Tail.
Thank you for your time
Larry Hamrin

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