15 Incredible Dragonfly Species

There's a lot more to dragonflies than most of us know. These winged insects deserve a little more credit than they've been given. These are some of the most unusual and rare dragonflies on Earth. Here are the top 15 most incredible dragonfly species. Number 15, Roseate Skimmer. Kicking off our list is the Roseate Skimmer. This species of dragonfly earns its name because of its rose pink and sometimes red or maroon colored abdomen of the males. The females on the other hand sport an orange-brown abdomen with clear orange veins in their wings and a brown thorax and stripe down their back. When it comes to mating season, the more vibrant the male Roseate Skimmer is, the better his chances are of producing plenty of offspring with his female counterparts. When a Roseate Skimmer is born, they've got a bright pink or purple abdomen and their thorax develops a blue tint as they mature. For a buzzing bug, these guys are pretty to look at. But these Roseate Skimmers typically invade new habitats and expand their territories in places like ponds, lakes, canals, and in more tropical areas like the Bahamas, West Indies, and even Hawaii. So make sure to look for them the next time you're on an island vacation with the family. This gorgeous dragonfly is going to be spotted foraging on the tops of tall vegetation and is an incredibly aggressive predator of all sorts of insects, even ones larger than itself. Number 14, Magenta Dragonfly. Magenta is a pretty uncommon color within the insect world, so you'd be pretty lucky to spot one of these Magenta Dragonflies out in the wild. Also known as the Crimson Marsh Glider, the male Magenta Dragonfly has got a reddish-brown face with deep crimson eyes with a matching thorax, which can also sometimes have a purple hue. They've also got a swollen abdomen, making them stand out even more from the crowd. It often has a violet tinge. The wings of the Crimson Marsh Glider are, you guessed it, transparent with a crimson hue and a nice broad amber patch and dark red and brown wing spots to tie it all together. The females, on the other hand, are going to be flying with bright red or even olive faces with surprisingly beautiful purple and brown eyes and a brown and black thorax to set them apart from the males. Their wings are also transparent with brown tips, so even while in flight, they'll be able to tell one another apart. These Magenta Dragonflies typically live near rivers, and seeing how they don't blend into their surroundings, they should be pretty easy to spot. Number 13. Golden-Ringed Dragonfly. Anyone living in the United Kingdom may be a little more familiar with the next entry on our list. The Golden-Ringed Dragonfly is the most common of its kind and hangs out in almost all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and as its name suggests, you might mistake it for a giant bumblebee if you catch it in the corner of your eye. This species is pretty easy to identify, seeing as how the both male and female Golden-Ringed Dragonfly are black with, you guessed it, yellow bands across their body with big bright green eyes. The only key difference here is the females tend to be longer and thinner. It's a slight difference, but it's enough for them to tell each other apart when they're buzzing around. These females are actually the longest of any dragonfly found in the UK, and it's their ovipositor or egg-laying organ that gives them the extra length to hold on to the top spot. The Golden-Ringed Dragonfly is seen mostly between May and September during their breeding season, and they could be pretty tough predators as well. Their large size lets them feed on the larger insects that fly around their grounds, and they subsist on a diet of damselflies, wasps, beetles, and even other dragonflies, and they have no problem chowing down on something bigger than themselves. Number 12. Sapphire Flutterer. The Sapphire Flutterer is a dragonfly as gorgeous as its name would suggest. One of the smallest species of the genus Rhyophemus, the Sapphire Flutterer struts its stuff in both Eastern and Southern Asia and Australia. It's quite common in both areas if you keep a keen eye out for them. You just may spot this brightly colored insect. The dragonflies can easily be identified by their dark blue abdomen and pale patches throughout, but it's when they're within direct sunlight that the Sapphire Flutterer really shines, making their entire body exude an absolutely amazing purple color. The Sapphire Flutterer may be common, but this sight never gets old. Their wings vary a bit from your typical dragonfly, giving them a distinct look and flight, so the Sapphire Flutterer has a bit more in common with your typical butterfly when it takes to the skies and hovers around the ponds. Number 11. Flame Skimmer. Hanging out near warm water ponds, streams, and even hot springs is the Flame Skimmer. This species of dragonfly is found specifically in Idaho, in the low elevation deserts of the southern parts of the state, and it easily has one of the coolest names of any insect. The male's body is entirely either red or dark orange from the thorax to the wing, and the females are characterized by their deep brown hue with thin gold markings around the thorax and on the wings as well. When they're larvae, the Flame Skimmer eats all sorts of aquatic insects, like the larvae of flies, freshwater shrimp, mayfly, and even mosquitoes, making them a great natural pest control. And if they're feeling really hungry, the nymphs can even manage to snag tadpoles and small fish. When the aptly named Flame Skimmer reaches adulthood, that's when things get really fun, because it'll eat just about any other soft-bodied insect on the wing, going for flies, moths, and even flying ants and termites. Number 10. Scarlet Darter. As their awesome name would suggest, the Scarlet Darter is pretty easily identified. The males are always going to show off their wide, bright red abdomen with smaller amber patches at the base of their hind wings. The females, on the other hand, as well as any immature Scarlet Darter, can be identified by their yellow brown eyes and eye-catching pale stripe along the top of their thorax. The Scarlet Darter was first discovered back in 1996, and since then, the species of dragonfly is actually pretty common around the world, having been recorded in every country in Africa. But it even extends its reach to southern Europe and southern China. The Scarlet Darter typically mates around both running and standing waters, but they hate the shade, which probably explains why their territories can even expand to the deserts and open woodlands. So if you ever do make your way to those parts of the world and see a large, bright red bug flying around, it could easily be the Scarlet Darter. Number nine, 12-spotted skimmer. If you can count to 12, then you may be able to spot the next species of dragonfly on our list, the 12-spotted skimmer. This species of dragonfly is incredibly popular throughout the Americas, popping up mostly in the United States, but also showing up in southern Canada and parts of Mexico. But aside from those famous 12 brown spots on their transparent wings, the 12-spotted skimmer also has a powder-colored thorax, giving this insect a pretty unique look. And just because a dragonfly isn't a bright red or blue color doesn't mean it can't be beautiful. And while all of these dragonflies are gonna have these eponymous spots, the best way to tell the males from the females is by the color. In between the black spots, the males will have a total of eight bright white spots, which can even appear blue in the right light, while the females and juveniles sport either brown or black spots with no white to be found. Males also sport a light blue abdomen, while the females are mostly black with a distinct long yellow stripe on each side. The 12-spotted skimmer can be seen feasting on smaller insects on the wing, even fellow skimmers, and they usually hang out near water sources like lakes, creeks, and lagoons, all of which make for some great breeding grounds. Number 8. Grizzled Pintail The next dragonfly creating all the buzz on our list can be found all over the globe and has an awesome name to boot. The grizzled pintail, also known as the trumpet tail, has a matte blue body on long, nimble, sometimes golden brown wings, and likes to hang out anywhere that's hot, humid, and full of bodies of water and plants to perch on. But this is easily one of the most beautiful and distinct looking dragonfly species out there. But despite that look, with large deep blue eyes and a blue and marbled black thorax, the grizzled pintail may be tough to catch a glimpse of due to its small size. This small stature also means that they have very weak wings and keep their flights nice and short, sticking to the reeds and herbage in the weeded areas where it usually breeds. This can also mean that while they do make meals out of plenty of small insects, they can easily run the risk of being devoured by some much larger dragonfly species, some of which we've already seen on this list. So if you do catch a grizzled pintail resting their long but thin wings on a perch, remember that they're probably as afraid of you as you are of them. Number 7. Beautiful Demoiselle The European damselfly are similar to dragonflies, with their biggest difference being a much slimmer body. And this one just happens to be the most beautiful of them all, which is how it earned the name the Beautiful Demoiselle. Found mostly in parts of the United Kingdom and Southern Ireland, the Beautiful Demoiselle has a pretty distinct look. The males have their dark blue-black wings, and the females have much more exotic-looking brown-green wings. But both male and female won't measure more than about 2 inches in length. They live on small but fast-flowing rivers with muddy bottoms, their usual breeding grounds. And it's here that the males will try to attract the females using a wild-looking courtship dance. Believe it or not, but the Beautiful Demoiselle is under threat from all sorts of things, like pollution, dredging, removal of aquatic bankside vegetation, and even overshading from tree growth. Number 6. Ebony Jeweling This entry sounds more like a gorgeous gemstone than it does a dragonfly. But the ebony jeweling is one of the most unique-looking species out there. The male sports a metallic iridescent body, and in the right sunlight can come off as blue or green. The females are going to have their bluish-green bodies with wings more translucent than their male counterparts, and show more of a dark brown than they do black. And they have an incredibly distinct white split near their wingtip. In all, it's the males who have the most eye-popping features, but they're also the ones more concerned with finding a mate than the females are. Both sexes of ebony jeweling are pretty large and can grow to be about 3 inches from head to tail. And instead of splaying their wings out while resting, the wings of the ebony jeweling press together and rest over their thorax. This awesome-looking species is found in the eastern part of the United States and Southeast Canada, near nice and shady freshwater streams with dense vegetation. But the males will leave these areas to seek out new territory and mating grounds. But when they do stop for a rest, these ebony jewelings prefer a branch in the sun. As the name suggests, the emperor dragonfly is a large species of dragonfly, growing to just over 3 inches from head to tail. It usually takes to the skies from the summer months of June to August. The emperor dragonfly is always going to make its home near large lands and ponds, but they'll also settle for canals and ditches. Anywhere there's water good enough for this impressive dragonfly, because the females lay their eggs in the floating palm weed. The emperor dragonfly is also incredibly easy to identify, not just because it's larger than most other species, but because of its distinct colors. Male emperor dragonflies have a pale blue body with a striking apple-green thorax and a black stripe that runs along the entire length of their body. The females are similar, but still somewhat easy to tell apart with their duller green and blue color. As always, it's the males who need to capture the attention of the females, not the other way around. But both sexes have large deep green eyes. The emperor dragonfly is found in Central and Southern Europe, and because of its large size, this species flies higher than most other insects. It catches big prey like butterflies and even other dragonflies on the wing. And it might just even eat it while it's still flying. Platycnemis acutipennis, better known as the orange featherleg, is a one-of-a-kind insect, because it's the only European damselfly with a combined orange and red abdomen with blue eyes. While those colors may clash anywhere else in nature, this little guy manages to pull it off perfectly. Talk about passing with flying colors. The males have somewhat wide hind tibias, which is about the only thing that sets them apart from their female counterparts. But as long as the orange featherlegs can tell each other apart, that's all that really matters. Both males and females have a yellowish abdomen with their distinct black stripes and orange spot on the tip of each wing, living up to their name. The orange featherleg is quite small, and just like other damselflies, their wings press together above their body when resting. But their bright colors still make them fairly easy to spot when they're perched on a reed. They are quite common, though, across the southwest of Europe in countries like France, Spain, and even Portugal. But over the years, they've migrated and made themselves quite comfortable in parts of Germany. Perhaps they were fleeing predators, which are often larger dragonflies. The tiger spike tail has a seriously awesome name and an even cooler look. They can be pretty big, growing from anywhere to two and a half to three inches long, and are characterized by their many yellow rings around their deep-pitched abdomen, which have a thin black line running through them. The males and females look alike for the most part. Only the females are going to be much larger, and their long spike-like ovipositor protrudes from the end of their abdomen, giving them the name spike tail. Luckily for the rest of us, dragonflies don't sting, despite these extra long protrusions. The tiger spike tail is a pretty rare species of dragonfly, and they tend to gravitate towards the forest. So the odds of seeing one out in the open in a well-lit area is highly unlikely. But if you do find yourself walking along a cold water forest stream, or even finding some seepage in North America, then you may just stumble across the tiger spike tail's preferred habitat for breeding. But make sure to not touch them, because aside from being rare, the tiger spike tail is under threat from habitat destruction and groundwater disturbance. The yellow-striped flutterer is an amazingly beautiful species of dragonfly that can be found all over Southeast Asia, in countries like Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and the list goes on. But it's safe to say that it enjoys the humid climates. This medium-sized dragonfly makes its home in the open ponds, swamps, and marshes. And as its name suggests, the yellow-striped flutterers flutters about like a butterfly more than it flies like your average dragonfly. But they do prefer to be on the wing, rarely staying in the same spot for too long. And their eye-catching appearance is what really makes them stand out, with a golden black and blue coloring as the base of their hind wings, which can reflect the light beautifully and give them their trademark sheen. And like we've seen in some other species on the list, the males and females are incredibly similar. Easily the most beautiful and illustrious dragonfly of all is the phantom flutterer. Found all over the African continent, the phantom flutterer is found around waters with vegetation, and thick tangled masses of floating algae, where they can flutter about, mate, lay eggs, and live an overall undisturbed life. But it's the appearance that makes the phantom flutterer stand out amongst the rest. It's quite simple really, with an all-metallic black thorax, abdomen, and eyes, with a small tapering in the last few abdominal sections. Their wings are completely transparent, save for their thin black veins, and the absolutely gorgeous metallic black and maroon panels in the hind wings. Males and females are almost identical, except for the female's rear appendages and ovipositor. And while they may not be the most aggressive predator when it comes to dragonfly species, the phantom flutterer is certainly the most breathtaking and the most incredible. Watch our animals playlist for more top 15 videos about animals. Sit back, relax, and binge-watch all of our best animal-related videos.