I have been seeing Common Green Darner dragonflies (Anax junius) in the air for several weeks now, but only this past Monday did I finally catch one taking a break from patrolling while I was tracking it at Occoquan Regional Park. It is quite common to see Common Green Darners patrolling high overhead in a wide variety of habitats, darting to and fro, feeding on the fly.
These large colorful dragonflies—about three inches (75 mm) in length—are among the first to be spotted in the early spring and among the last to disappear late in the autumn. How is such a long flight season possible? The simple answer is that Common Green Darners are a migratory dragonfly species. Kevin Munroe described the migratory cycle on his wonderful Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website in these words:
“Common Greens seen in our area in early spring are in fact migrants from points south. They emerge in the Southeast and fly north, arriving here late March thru May. After their long flight, they mate, lay eggs and die. Their young emerge in July and August. Congregating in large swarms, this second generation begins flying south in September. They lay eggs that fall, after arriving in their southern destinations, and die. When their young hatch in March, they fly back to Northern Virginia and it starts again— a two generation migration.”
I love the bright and cheery colors of the Common Green Darner, colors that reminded one of my Facebook viewers of a tropical parrot. I also really like the bullseye pattern on the dragonfly’s “nose,” just below its large compound eyes. Be sure to click on the image if you want to see these details better.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Look at the origin of Anax:
https://www.behindthename.com/name/anax/submitted#
It occurred to me that “feeding on the fly” can be taken more than one way.
Thanks for stimulating my brain this morning, Steve. I love words and etymology and thus it was fascinating to learn more about Anax. As for “feeding on the fly”–it is amazing to me that you managed to combine etymology and entomology into a single comment. 🙂
Etymology and entomology make for a euphonious combination. You can add ornithology with the name of an art gallery I remember from Manhattan half a century ago: A Bird Can Fly But a Fly Can’t Bird. In the decades since then, bird has become a verb (“I went birding last Saturday”), so if there are any ornithologically inclined flies around, the gallery’s name would no longer be true.
Here is a report that includes an account of a red-footed cannibalfly (a kind of robber fly) taking down a hummingbird. Yikes. http://www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek070901.html
Yikes indeed.
It’s always interesting to learn how nature works. Thanks Mike.
I more I poke about, Dan, the more I come across interesting tidbits of information. Everyone knows that certain birds migrate, but I remember being shocked when I first learned that some dragonflies do so as well.
I never would have imagined. And to migrate and die and then have your offspring migrate back and die. It’s an odd cycle.
It is pretty unusual, Dan, and raises the question of how the offspring know where to go.
Right, since neither set go anywhere they have ever been.
It’s a beauty!
The “bullseye” looked like a giant blue eye at my glance. What stupendous colors. Hope I get to see one this spring/summer that is still enough to examine like your photos!
One of the reasons why I so much enjoy sharing my photos, Molly, is that I have the time and temperament to wait for some of these flying creatures to stop for a rest. Common Green Darners are relatively common, but most times all I see is a flash of color when one of them zooms by as it is patrolling.