While the family breaks down into approximately forty different species, divided into thirteen genera, almost forty per cent of the species belong to the genus Aeshna, or Mosaic Darners.

Outside the Aeshna genus, most darners are fairly easy to identify.

Identifying mosaic darners, on the other hand, can be a very difficult task, even with the presence of large and sharp specimen images. For convenience sake, two general rules of thumb start the identification process.

First, body color serves as the distinguishing characteristic dividing males and females. Most males have blue patterns on the thorax and abdomen, while females often, but not always, come in shades of yellow and green.

The picture on the left shows a male's common blue body pattern along with the characteristic narrow abdominal segment directly below the thorax.

The absence or presence of thoracic stripes (top and side), along with their shape when present, serve as the second leading mosaic darner identification clue. Therefore, when photographing darners for ID purpose, always attempt to get a clear picture of the thorax. Because they rarely perch, many photographs catch them in nets and pose them.

The top picture shows the thorax and the top of the abdomen of a green form of a female darner. The short thoracic stripe on the top and the long vertical stripe at the center of the top abdominal pattern are good clues for a female Paddle-tailed Darner.

With the exception of the Common Green Darner, Comet Darner, Phantom Darner and Twilight Darner, the links in the box point to a handful of additional mosaic darner species.

© 2007-2009. Patricia A. Michaels