hairy dragonfly
hairy hawker
brachytron pratense
portraits
The female's wings have a yellow suffusion around the base and leading edge. The abdomen is thick and has yellow markings.
Both sexes have very long, thin wing-spots and a yellow costa. The female's thoracic stripes are weak.
Males have a brown thorax with yellow stripes. The abdomen is dark with pairs of bluish spots on each segment (they appear very light in the photo).
Warmth from a human hand often helps a stunned specimen to recover.
This species undoubtedly got its name from its hairiness but all dragonflies are hairy to some extent. The hair acts as a form of insulation.
ovipositing
female on her own laying eggs into floating vegetation
feeding
