As the seasons change, some dragonflies begin to disappear, but happily some new ones appear, like this spectacular female Blue-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum ambiguum) that I spotted this past Monday at Huntley Meadows Park.
One of the really cool things about this species is that there are two different color variants of the females. Most of the females (and young males) are brown in color and are sometimes referred to as heteromorphs, while a smaller number of females, like the one in the photo, have a bright red color matching that of mature males and are sometimes referred to as andromorphs. This is roughly parallel to the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, which has two different varieties of female, a yellow morph that matches the males and a black morph.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Mike! Love this shot! What a colour! I’m thinking about putting together a fairly quick “red” post after seeing some lovely reds this morning. If I do it, may I include this shot in my post?
Yes, please feel free to use this shot. A recent posting I did of a bright red male Calico Pennant dragonfly might work too.
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Hi Mike. How can you tell a female from a male with dragonfly species?
Sometimes there are color variations between the males and females of dragonfly species, as it is with birds. The best indicator is looking at the tip of the abdomen (the “tail” end), which is quite different for a male and a female.
Interesting. Thanks for that. Learn something new every day. 🙂