#odonata

Vivid dancer, Argia vivida, Coenagrionidae, Zygoptera

Found in western North America

Black-tipped darner (Aeshna tuberculifera)

The genus Aeshna, or mosaic darners, contains many similar-looking species found in temperate and boreal regions across the Northern Hemisphere. If you live in the northern US or Canada, many of the large, fast dragonflies seen flying in swarms in late summer and fall belong to this genus.

A. tuberculifera is one of the largest Aeshna in North America, and in my opinion might be the coolest looking- just look at the turquoise on his thorax stripes!

How did ancient bugs get so big? The prevailing theory may be wrong.

Flying insect respiratory systems suggest abundant oxygen can’t explain ancient gigantism.

About 300 million years ago, giant dragonflylike insects with half-meter wing spans buzzed through hot and swampy forests on the former supercontinent of Pangaea. Scientists have long debated what allowed griffenflies, as they’re known, and similar fearsome flying bugs to grow so big during the Carboniferous period. The atmosphere at the time held more oxygen than it does today, and the textbook hypothesis suggests these giant insects developed more respiratory tubes to deliver that gas to their muscles, enabling them to grow and grow. But a new analysis of the anatomy of insect flight muscles, published last week in Nature, undercuts that idea, suggesting past ferocious fliers didn’t incorporate oxygen into their muscles any more generously than their smaller counterparts do today...

It'd be hard to call the roseate skimmer by any other name! Males are noted for their bright pink color, which is rare among dragonflies. Thanks to their blush, they can be easily spotted near open bodies of water from the southeastern United States all the way to Brazil.