Common hawker

The common hawker,[2] moorland hawker[1] or sedge darner[1] (Aeshna juncea) is one of the larger species of hawker dragonflies. It is native to Palearctic (from Ireland to Japan) and northern North America. The flight period is from June to early October.

Common Hawker

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Odonata
Family:
Aeshnidae
Genus:
Aeshna
Species:
A. juncea
Binomial name
Aeshna juncea
Synonyms

Aeshna rustica Zetterstedt, 1840
Aeshna undulata Bartenev, 1930
Libellula juncea L. 1758

It is 74 millimetres (2.9 in) long with a brown body. The male has a black abdomen with paired blue and yellow spots on each abdominal segment, and narrow stripes along the dorsal surface of the thorax. In the female, the abdomen is brown with yellow or sometimes green or blue spots. The wings of both sexes display a yellow costa (the major vein running along the leading edge of the wings). This species lacks the green thorax stripes of the southern hawker.

Female common hawkers will sometimes dive out of the sky and feign death in order to avoid copulating with males.[3][4]

Male hovering

References
  1. Boudot, J.-P. (2017). "Aeshna juncea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T165518A65835376. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T165518A65835376.en.
  2. "Common Hawker". British Dragonfly Society. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  3. "Female dragonflies fake sudden death to avoid male advances". New Scientist. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  4. Khelifa, Rassim (2017-06-01). "Faking death to avoid male coercion: extreme sexual conflict resolution in a dragonfly". Ecology. 98 (6): 1724–1726. doi:10.1002/ecy.1781. ISSN 1939-9170. PMID 28436995.
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