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Sticker of Norfolk hawker
Bug card No. 3009 of 4,939

Norfolk hawker

Isoaeschna isoceles
Name means: “isoceles comes from the triangle shape of the yellow mark on its body”

The Norfolk hawker is a brown dragonfly with bright green eyes and clear wings. On its body, just behind the wings, it has a small yellow triangle. Its green eyes stand out even when it zooms past.

Lives in
Central Europe, around the Mediterranean and North Africa, near ponds, ditches and marshes
Top speed
about 40 km/h (25 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting. Just watch it fly.
What does it eat?
It catches flying insects in the air. Its babies live in the water and hunt small water animals.
For real!Photo of Norfolk hawker
Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is one of only two brown hawker dragonflies in Europe.

2

The other one, the brown hawker, has yellowish wings and bluish eyes, so they are easy to tell apart.

3

Its back wings have an amber patch near the body.

4

In England it likes ponds with a floating plant called water soldier.

5

In Britain it is rare and lives mainly in Norfolk, which gave it its English name.

you asked

Most asked questions about Norfolk hawker

?How can you recognise the Norfolk hawker?

It is brown with green eyes, clear wings and a yellow triangle near the top of its body.

?Where does the Norfolk hawker live?

In central Europe, around the Mediterranean and in North Africa, near ponds and marshes.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Isoaeschna isoceles
Group
Dragonflies and damselflies
Family
Aeshnidae
Classification
Insecta > Odonata > Aeshnidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa
Also known as
Green-eyed hawker

Where the facts come from

  1. Aeshna isoceles (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 Christian Fischer. 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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