White Blue Dasher?

Here's a Blue Dasher (don't call me White Dasher!) despite not looking especially blue. While it's possible that the dragonfly's abdomen would look a little bluer in different lighting, it's not uncommon to see Blue Dashers that are such a light blue that you might consider them to be white instead.

Like many male dragonflies, they start out the adult, winged version of their lives looks a lot like females of their species, in this case having an abdomen that's yellow with black stripes. As the males mature, their abdomen starts to develop a dark blue pruinose (a waxy covering). And then as they age, the pruinose gets lighter and lighter. I'm thinking this guy is a Blue Dasher senior citizen given the lightness of this abdomen.

One tricky thing about identifying species is that sometimes the names don't make a lot of sense given the individual you're looking at. This is especially true for female odonates, and frequently true for female birds, but sometimes it's due to individual variation or stage of life.

July 28, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 148655540, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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