Thursday, November 13, 2008

Western Pondhawk


Pondhawks (Erythemis collocata) are members of the skimmer family, with similar looking Eastern and Western species.

The male Western Pondhawk, seen in the top picture, is a mixture of green and blue, indicating youth. In a week or so, both the thorax and abdomen will be a consistent light blue color.

Male Western Pondhawks look similar to Blue Dashers. The green nose and solid color thorax (whether early green or mature blue) represent good field identificaion marks to differentiate between the two species.

The female western pondhawk (Erythemis collocata) is green in color with the yellow or tan markings on the abdomen.