Scarlet dragonfly
The scarlet dragonfly is bright red, like a flying strawberry. The male has a wide, flat, scarlet tummy and even red lines on the front edges of his wings. The female is yellow-brown with a pale stripe on her back. It loves sunny ponds and streams.
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Fun facts
Only the grown-up males are bright red. Females and young ones are yellow-brown.
At the base of the male's back wings there are little amber patches, like drops of honey.
It likes open, sunny water and stays away from shady ponds and thick forests.
In Britain it is a very rare visitor. The first one was seen in Cornwall in 1995.
Most asked questions about Scarlet dragonfly
?Why is the scarlet dragonfly red?
Only the males are bright red, which helps them show off. The females are yellow-brown.
?Do scarlet dragonflies sting?
No. They are harmless to people.
?How big is a scarlet dragonfly?
It is about 3.5 to 4.5 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Crocothemis erythraea
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- Broad scarlet, Common scarlet-darter, Scarlet darter
Where the facts come from
- Scarlet dragonfly (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.
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