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Sticker of Lake darner
Bug card No. 2483 of 4,939

Lake darner

Aeshna eremita
Name means: “eremita means hermit in Latin, after Hermit Lake where it was first found. The common name comes from the large lakes where it lives”

The lake darner is a big dragonfly from Canada and the northern United States. It flies on and on over large lakes, hardly ever stopping. The male is mostly blue, and both males and females have a black line across the face.

Lives in
Canada, Alaska and the northern United States, near large lakes
Length
8 cm (3.1 in)
Top speed
about 46 km/h (29 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies cannot sting, so you can watch it up close.
What does it eat?
Like other dragonflies, it catches flying insects in the air. Its young grow up in the water and hunt there.
For real!Photo of Lake darner
Picture by (c) Maurice Raymond, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Lake darner about 8 cm long (3.1 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 8.2 secondsmoves 160 times its own body length every second

How big is Lake darner compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It can be up to 8 centimetres long. In many places it is the biggest darner around.

2

It was first found in 1866 at Hermit Lake in the White Mountains of New England.

3

Its black face line helps you tell it apart from its look-alike, the Canada darner.

4

For many years scientists argued whether it was the same species as a dragonfly from Europe and Siberia. It is not.

5

It lives from Newfoundland in the east all the way to Alaska in the west.

you asked

Most asked questions about Lake darner

?How big is the lake darner?

Up to about 8 centimetres long, a big dragonfly.

?Is the lake darner dangerous?

No. Dragonflies cannot sting or hurt people.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Aeshna eremita
Named by
Scudder, 1866
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Aeshnidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Aeshnidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Aeshna eremita (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by (c) Maurice Raymond, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 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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More from the same group: Dragonflies and damselflies

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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