CLOSED: Dragonfly ID help needed

Which one am I? Please and Thank you :)

What a face lol!

Hi Vee

I think that it is a blue-black slaty skimmer. I have a picture for you. I also have a real neat chart that I can dmail if you would like. I don't know if it will come out readable but I can try.

Thank you Dee :)
If you think the chart will help a dragonfly dummie like me then by all means send it lol! It's certainly worth a try :)

I think the Four Spot Pennant, going by the white patches on the tips o f wings

http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/27328406

http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/florida_dragonflies

Female Four Spot Pennant

http://www.birdcrossstitch.com/dragonflies/FourSpottedPennant/P7040018.jpg

http://www.birdcrossstitch.com/dragonflies/

http://www.njodes.com/Speciesaccts/skimmers/penn-four.asp

http://www.rt66.com/~kjherman/odonata/df-Brachy_gra.N.html

http://www.dragonflies.org/bgra_2mt.htm

The only trouble with that looks to be the darker patches on the wings!

Okay, bare with me here, because this might get a little complicated and take a little bit of imagination - heh. But here's my idea. I think that this might be a female Roseate Skimmer (Orthemis ferruginea), and I am basing this idea more on the markings of the thorax than the color seen in the first picture. However, the color does seem to be a bit more brownish in the second picture, so maybe this isn't too far off.

Here is a picture of a juvenile, but the pattern on the thorax is typical and I think looks an awful lot like the one on yours... http://bugguide.net/node/view/22627/bgimage .

Here is another dragonfly of this species... http://bugguide.net/node/view/67226/bgimage . The pattern on this one is a little more definied than on yours, but look at the tail near the bottom and you'll see where there is a widening of one of the segments of the abdomen. I think that I also see this on your dragonfly in the first picture. It is a little transparent. This is one of the characteristics of this species.

Also characteristic is a white line down the back of the thorax between the wings which can be seen in this female... http://bugguide.net/node/view/65672/bgimage . Do you remember seeing a white line on her back? Unfortunately, I can't see her back in either of your shots posted here or that might help to let me know if I'm on the right track.

My original identification idea came from looking through "Dragonflies of the Florida Peninsula, Bermuda, and the Bahamas," by Sidney W. Dunkle (Scientific Publishers Nature Guide No. 1). It has some really good photographs - though I will admit a bit of bias as Dr. Dunkle was my professor for a few of my classes at the University of Florida. If you are interested in dragonfly identification, you may want to try to track down this reference since it is specialized for your area of the country and so would cut down on having to look through a bunch of pictures of dragonflies not in your area. It also has ecology and behavior information, but not so elaborate as to make it too long to read. The identification information isn't too technical either, focusing on markings, size, shape, etc. rather than technical stuff.

This message was edited Aug 22, 2006 5:41 AM