Eastern Pondhawk vs Blue Dasher

Here's another pair of different dragonfly species sharing the same perch. (I'm not sure if it's a relatively wild blade of grass, or a long leaf from a wildflower.)

The green-faced dude on the left is an Eastern Pondhawk while the white-faced guy on the right is a Blue Dasher. Though I didn't notice any fisticuffs, and I'd like to think they were friends looking for lunch together, I'd normally expect these species to be antagonistic towards one another:

  • The Eastern Pondhawk will eat other insects approximately its size or smaller (though I suspect tangling with another predatory insect like a dragonfly is a case where they'd like to go for something smaller).
  • The Blue Dasher males are known to act aggressively towards any other blue dragonfly, just in case they turn out to be rival males invading their territory.

The Eastern Pondhawk is generally the larger of the 2, though there is overlap in their sizes. The Blue Dasher is probably more variable in size, sometimes being the size of a large Eastern Pondhawk but sometimes being quite a bit smaller.

Even though I wouldn't expect these guys to peacefully coexist, there's only so much desirable dragonfly territory out there, and I'm sure this sometimes forces them into closer contact than they'd like.

July 27, 2021 at the Washington Valley Reservoir
Photo 148653555, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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