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FAMILY LIBELLULIDAE
- This page contains information and pictures about Blue Skimmer Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Matured male, body length 45mm
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- The Blue Skimmer Dragonflies
are sometimes known as Sky Blue Dragonflies. They are medium in size
with body
length 45mm. Their bodies are long and slender, matured males are powder blue in
colour with tapered dark abdomen tip. Outer wings with smoky
suffusion.
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 - Female, body length 45mm
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- Female are brownish grey in colour. Their wings
are clear with brown colour near the wing tip. Females' body colours are also
changing (details discussed below). When they
are at rest, the dragonflies held out theirs wings horizontally, sometime they
hold their wings below their body.
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 - Larval exuviae, 25mm
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- The larva uses its tail to breath in water. Just before the last
molting, the larva climb up from the water and emerge from the last
molting skin as an adult. The larva is a predator in water preying on
small animals such as mosquitoes larva.
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- The adult is a predator in the sky and
preying on flying insects. They fly amount the low
vegetations over the pond. They perch regularly. They return to the same spots after a
short flight.
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- This is one of the most common dragonflies found in Brisbane. They can be
seen on every large piece of fresh water, still or flowing, during sunny
days. They can be found on temporary waters as well. They are active all
year round in Brisbane.
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- In Brisbane there are two species of blue dragonflies which are common. At the left of the
above picture is the Blue Scarlet,
with similar colour and size as the Blue Skimmer at the right. They can be found at the same
area. They can be distinguished
by the dark thorax and wider abdomen of Blue Scarlet. In both
species the female are in brownish yellow colour, the Blue Scarlet female
has the black line at the middle of the boarder abdomen.
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- The Dragonflies have the very good eye sight, still, sometimes they
are still get caught in a spider web. The about picture shows a male Blue Skimmer
in the spider web.
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The Changing Colours of males
- Although this species is common, sometimes we found confusing in recognizing
this dragonfly. Their males and females look different. The males keep changing
colours when from just emerged to matured.
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 - Teneral male
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- The males just emerged, or the teneral males, have the
yellow body with dull black patterns.
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  - Maturing male with colour changing
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- Its body will turn to light powder blue when
maturing. Usually they are found hunting over the bush a few hundred meters
away from the waters.
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 - Matured male
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- Matured males have the powder blue
body colour. They are found resting or flying amount the low
vegetations over the pond.
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 - Old male
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- Its broken wings show that it had been fighting with other males many
times.
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The Changing Colours of females
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  - Teneral females
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- Young females also have the
yellow body with dull black patterns. They are usually hunting away from the
waters. Only return to the waters when matured.
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 - Young
female
Matured female
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- Old female
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- Old females gradually turn into powder blue, but never
reach the full colour as the male. Above pictures show the female laying
eggs alone, without the attention or guarding by male.
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Mating
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- Because this species of female laying eggs alone, she is often interrupted
by other males while she was laying eggs. The above pictures show when the
female was grabbed by a male and mated while she was laying eggs,
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- Most other species of dragonflies mate in wheel-position for a few
minutes, some over half an hour. The Blue Skimmer's mating only take 2-4
seconds.
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- Reference:
- 1. The Australian Dragonflies - CSIRO, Watson, Theisinger & Abbey,1991,
p250.
- 2. A
Field Guide to Dragonflies of South East Queensland - Ric Nattrass, 2006,
p99.
- 3. The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia - CSIRO, Günther Theischinger and John Hawking, 2006,
p266.
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