dragonfly
Location: Missouri River – Nebraska City, NE
February 1, 2012 4:46 pm
I took this photo on July 2nd, 2011 in Nebraska City, NE. the Missouri River was flooded and the dragonflies grew huge.
it was about 2” long and had a 4” wingspan.
any idea what species it is?
thanks!
Signature: Jake
Widow Skimmer, we believe
Hi Jake,
We often have a great deal of difficulty with the identification of Dragonflies to the species level, but we will do our best. We believe this closely resembles a Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, which we found pictured on BugGuide. The description on BugGuide is: “Mature males have a large basal area of brown on each of the four wings, and each wing also has a whitish area roughly at the middle. Their brown bodies become increasingly pruinose (whitish) as they get older. Females and immature males have the same brown wing bands as the mature males, but not the whitish areas. Wings usually have a brown tip. A dorsal view of the abdomen shows a brown band at center with a yellow stripe running along each side.” Since there are no white patches on the wings, we suspect this is most likely a female or an immature male.
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