Saffron-winged meadowhawk

The saffron-winged meadowhawk is a pretty dragonfly from North America. Young ones and females have saffron coloured stripes on their wings. Its body starts out yellowish brown and turns pale red when it is grown up.

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Fun facts
It is about 3 and a half centimetres long.
The sides of its tail have little black triangles.
Its legs are striped black and yellow, or black and red.
It looks so much like its cousins, the ruby and white-faced meadowhawks, that even experts can find it tricky to tell them apart.
Most asked questions about Saffron-winged meadowhawk
?How big is the saffron-winged meadowhawk?
About 35 millimetres long, a bit shorter than your finger.
?Is the saffron-winged meadowhawk dangerous?
No. Dragonflies cannot sting and do not bother people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Sympetrum costiferum
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Sympetrum costiferum (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 3.0, 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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