Aeshna mixta - Migrant Hawker

Phylum: Arthropoda - Class: Insecta - Order: Odonata - Family: Aeschnidae

Description

A medium-sized dragonfly (typically 6.4cm long), the Migrant Hawker males, which have blue eyes, are dark brown with black with blue spots and some yellow flecks. The females, which have brown eyes, have mainly brown bodies with yellow spots. It is easy (as we have found from personal experience) to confuse the Migrant Hawker wil the somewhat larger Common Hawker. Here are some points to help distinguish these two species:

• The Common Hawker is a large (typically 7.5cm long), fast-flying dragonfly with yellowish costa (leading edges of wings). Key features that distinguish the Migrant Hawker from the somewhat larger Common Hawker Aeshna juncea are that the Migrant Hawker has:
• A nail-like or golf tee-like marking in its second abdomonal segment (see third picture, below)
• Dull brownish (rather than yellow) costa (leading edge of wings)
• A pair of broad diagonal 'antehumeral' stripes, broader at one end, on the sides of the thorax. (A. juncea has narrow, more uniform stripes that are not broader at one end.)

The male (above) is predominantly black with paired pale blue spots and yellow flecks along its body; its eyes are dark blue, and there are pale yellow-and-blue patches on its thorax.

Most females have browner bodies with yellowish spots and their eyes are brown rather than blue.

Above: Closeup of a female Migrant Hawker

Distribution

The Migrant Hawker is common in southern and central England, and Wales but more scarce further north; however, its range has been increasing northwards, and it is now resident in parts of southern Scotland. This species is also recorded in Ireland, particuarly in the south and east. Elaswhere, this species is known to occur in many parts of central and southern Europe as well as parts of Northetn Africa. Eastwards, its range extends across Asia as far as China.

Habitat

This dragonfly favours well-vegetated ponds, ditches and other shallo standing water; however, the Migrant Hawker also seeks prey in meadows and gardens but most notably along hedgerows and sheltered woodland edges well away from its breeding waters.

Lifecycle

Migrant Hawkers can be seen on the wing from Late July through to October or early November. The female lays her eggs in summer and early autumn, stabbing her ovipositor into submerged marginal vegetation. The eggs lie dormant through the winter and then hatch in the following spring.

Migrant Hawker nymphs (naiads) usuakky take one year to reach maturity, during which time they feed on small invertebrates including the nymphs and larvae of other aquatic insects.

Acknowledgements

This page includes pictures kindly contributed by Betty and Tony Rackham and by James Wainscoat.

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