Common Whitetail Dragonfly - Immature Male

Here's an immature male Common Whitetail Dragonfly. How do you know it's an immature male? It's not like the dragonfly is moody, or is horsing around with his buddies, or wants to drop out of school to join a rock band.

It's all in the wings. The body coloring looks very much like an adult female Common Whitetail, but the difference is in the wing pattern. Each wing has some coloring near the base but it mostly consists of a wide complete dark band that goes uninterrupted from front to back. If this were a female, each wing would have a dark path out at the end and then another one in the middle that's at the front of the wing but doesn't extend to the back of the wing. (The link above shows/describes this a little more.)

Later on in life, this fella should develop pruinose on its tail, giving it the white tail that more easily distinguishes the males and lends this dragonfly its name.

Immature male Common Whitetail at Duke Farms


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