Common Green Darner Dragonfly

(Anax junius)

A beautiful male Common Green Darner Dragonfly (Anax junius) that I caught last summer. This species is one of the largest dragonflies in North America. Dragonflies are renowned for being some of the world’s fastest flying insects! They’ve been recorded to hit speeds of about 35 mph! Not only can they fly incredibly fast, but they also have great vision! The eyes of a dragonfly are very large and take up most of their head. This gives them almost a 360 degree range of sight! Dragonflies are predators to a wide range of different insects, so they use their large bulbous eyes to find their prey. Once prey has been spotted, they quickly fly to it and snatch their prey up like a hawk!