Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks. I've always admired dragonflies from afar, but the big ones tend to scare me a bit. The other day I was swimming in my swimming pool (I live about 30 miles west of Phoenix) and a big red dragonfly started circling the pool, and myself. A bit scary. The next time I was out at that time of the morning the dragonfly was back, and I was less scared and more interested. Then suddenly there were two of them giving me an arial display like none other. Then I thought they were attacking one another, but realized they were mating. After they disengaged, the one I thought was the male started to chase the female around the swimming pool, dipping the tip of his body into the water like some crazed rock sent skipping across the water. Then up and away they went, mating again. Did I mistake which was the male and which was the female? Were they laying eggs in the pool? (doomed eggs I might add!).

I looked in one of my field guides for flora and fauna of the southwest, but every single "red" species of dragonfly listed had a body an inch long. I found one of these specimens drowned in the pool. But none of them mentioned a dragonfly like the ones that like our swimming pool (not to drown in). I was lucky enough to get a picture of one of the dragonflies this morning. I would like to know what kind it is.

The dragonfly pictured looks like a Flame Skimmer
Libellula saturata. I'll provide a link that has some pictures for a comparison ID.
Link

Thanks, that's the very one. Nice site, thanks for linking it.

Dragonflies rawk!

When I was a kid, I was swimming and a wasp was harassing me. A large dragonfly came out of nowhere and started bumping it and got it out of my yard. That was awesome and I've loved them eversince.

They are curious and very friendly. Only on one occasion have I been nipped by alarge male on the tip of my finger. I don't know why, but they all remind me of Don Knots )

When I was working at a local casino, I was running a music show in a large tent outdoors. It was summertime and being besides the largest lake in Louisiana, the dragonflies were swarming! I mean there were so many, you would step on them if you weren't paying attention!

At any rate, we had large fans operating inside of the tent and I noticed that each unit had dozens of giant dragonflies caught in the fan's grill just clinging on to life. I turned the fans off for a few minutes and helped them to escape. Hey, it's the least I could do. Afterall, they helped me out and I enjoy their presence.

~F