Dragonfly ID please

[sebastianbawn]

Found outside Bristol in the UK. Some sort of Darter or Hawker?

[Geoff F]

I suspect a male Common Darter. But wait for one of the Dragonfly experts to give another opinion.

[Naturenutz]

I think maybe a female common darter but ive also seen them yellowish as well as the redder males

[WhiskyBottle]

Teneral male common darter

[RoyW]

So everyones agreed on Common Darter then?

It is a Common Darter - an old female. The shape of the appendages at the end of the abdomen identify the gender (if I manage to attach a couple of images 'borrowed' from the Gallery you should be able to see the difference when you enlarge the images);

male -



female -



Females start off yellow (often very bright) and become browner or greyer as they age, some older females also develop some of the red colouring normally associated with males.

Roy.