United States and Canada
35-43 mm. Noticeably robust for a meadowhawk with a distinctive abdominal pattern. Typically feeds by catching prey from perches, but will fly in swarms with other species. A migrant species following a similar pattern to the Common Green Darner, with mature males appearing across the northern part of its range well before any sign of emergence. In the fall, large numbers then emerge in the north before flying southward with many individuals overwintering the southwest.
Range: Found across North America including southern Canada.
Identification: Male with reddish-brown eyes and red face. One of 2 more robust-looking meadowhawks in Texas. Thorax brown with faint hint of white stripes laterally, ending below in bright yellow spot. Wings with red veins along anterior margin. Pterostigma usually darker in middle. Legs black with pale brown on outside of femur and tibia. Abdomen may appear red, but each side of segment instead broadly outlined in red and colored brown in between, with black dorsally on S8–9 and narrow white lateral lines on S6–8. Older males with more red in each segment, thus appearing to have a red abdomen. Juvenile male much like female, though abdomen possibly showing various states of red. Females with eyes brown or pale gray or turquoise and face pale. Thorax brown with distinctive white stripes terminating below in a yellow spot. Anterior wing veins orange or yellow. Pterostigmas paler than in mature male, but still darker in middle. Abdomen as in male, but red replaced with orangish brown and with white spots laterally on S3–8.
Similar species: The Cardinal Meadowhawk is most similar in size and general appearance, but has no visible patterning on its solid red abdomen and has dark streaks basally in the hind wing. The Striped and Red-veined Meadowhawks lack yellow spots at the bottom of stripes on the side of the thorax, and the abdomen is not patterned except for black lateral stripes on S4–8. Saffron-winged Meadowhawk somewhat similar, but with uniformly colored pterostigma and abdomen broadly red or yellow in younger individuals and females.
