Identifying Point Pleasant Dragonflies

We are still in the process of surveying the dragonfly diversity of Point Pleasant, so this page is being updated as we add more species. If you believe you have a picture of a Point Pleasant dragonfly that is NOT included on this page that you'd like to share, feel free to send it to

pointpleasantdragonflies@gmail.com

This guide is organized by visual characteristics intended to help you find the dragonfly you saw. If you would prefer a more traditional approach organized by dragonfly families, see the More Information page.

Dragonflies with Patterned Wings

There are several dragonfly species you will see at Point Pleasant with patterns on their wings, mostly black or black and white, but also red or gold. These are all in the skimmer family of dragonflies. You will notice that immature male skimmers often have the same color pattern as females and then change as they mature. You may also see males in transition from the immature to the mature coloration, such as a widow skimmer with white starting to show on its wings but not yet as complete as in the image below.

Blue Dragonflies

Three dragonfly species common at Point Pleasant have mature males that are mostly blue.

Green Dragonflies

At least three species of dragonflies at Point Pleasant have some prominent green coloration, two of them females or immature males of predominantly blue mature males above.

Black or Brown Dragonflies with Yellow or Green Markings

This description fits many of the species in the clubtail family of dragonflies. Clubtails can be recognized also by the fact that unlike other families of dragonflies at Point Pleasant, their eyes do not meet in the middle of their heads but are completely separated. Also in the category of dark dragonflies with yellow markings are the River Cruisers. True to their name, these large black dragonflies cruise long beats back and forth, often right along the mowed trail. If you see a large black dragonfly with splashes of yellow on the side in the front and along the back zoom past you, that's a cruiser. If the light is right, you may also catch a glimpse of bright green eyes as it approaches. We are still in the process of determining exactly which River Cruiser species are present at Point Pleasant. Darners and Emeralds are two other dragonfly families with representatives in this category.

Other Dragonflies with Clear Wings

Included here are the small red or gold dragonflies known as meadowhawks. There are some species of meadowhawks (Ruby, Cherry-faced and White-faced -- so far we've found only Ruby Meadowhawks at Point Pleasant) which can only be differentiated by close in-hand examination of fine details. For our purposes here, we'll settle on just identifying the hard ones as meadowhawks!