Twelve-spotted skimmer

Libellula pulchella

Eats: Other bugs and small animals Dragonflies and damselfliesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The twelve-spotted skimmer is a big dragonfly from North America. Each of its four wings has three brown spots, so it has twelve in all. Grown-up males get extra white spots between the brown ones.

Lives in

Southern Canada and all over the United States, near ponds and lakes

Length

5 cm (2 in)

Top speed

about 37 km/h (23 mph)

Flying, estimate

Can it hurt you?

Harmless

Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting and do not hurt people.

What does it eat?

Like all dragonflies, it catches small flying insects in the air.

Photo of Twelve-spotted skimmer — Picture by D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

as long as 8 grains of rice in a rowas long as 1.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 10 secondsmoves 210 times its own body length every second

How big is Twelve-spotted skimmer compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)

A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)

Twelve-spotted skimmer about 37 km/h (23 mph)

A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

It lives in every one of the 48 joined-up states of the United States.

Because of the white spots on the males, some people call it the ten-spot skimmer.

At about 5 centimetres long, it is a large dragonfly.

you asked

Most asked questions about Twelve-spotted skimmer

?Why is it called twelve-spotted?

Each of its four wings has three brown spots, which makes twelve.

?Is the twelve-spotted skimmer dangerous?

No. It has no sting and is harmless to people.

For bug experts

Scientific name: Libellula pulchella
Group: Dragonflies and damselflies
Family: Libellulidae
Classification: Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
Lives on: North America
Also known as: Ten-spot skimmer

Where the facts come from

Twelve-spotted skimmer (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
Picture by D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.