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Sticker of Blue-spotted hawker
Bug card No. 0559 of 4,939

Blue-spotted hawker

Adversaeschna brevistyla
Name means: “short stakes, after the short little points at the end of its tail”

The blue-spotted hawker is a large dragonfly from Australia and New Zealand. It has two bright blue stripes on its body and pale orange front edges on its wings. Grown-up males have blue eyes and females have brown eyes.

Lives in
Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific islands, near ponds and marshes
Top speed
about 40 km/h (25 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies do not sting.
What does it eat?
Like all dragonflies, it catches flying insects. Its young live in water and hunt there.
For real!Photo of Blue-spotted hawker
Picture by JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is the only dragonfly in its group of the dragonfly family tree.

2

It likes still water but also visits calm streams and plants far away from water.

3

It is not in danger of disappearing.

you asked

Most asked questions about Blue-spotted hawker

?Where does the blue-spotted hawker live?

In Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific islands.

?Can the blue-spotted hawker sting?

No. Dragonflies have no stinger and are harmless.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Adversaeschna brevistyla
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Aeshnidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Aeshnidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Lancer dragonfly

Where the facts come from

  1. Blue-spotted hawker (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 JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ). 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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More from the same group: Dragonflies and damselflies

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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