Brown Hawker
(Aeshna grandis)

Almost everything about the Brown Hawker is indeed brown; even its wings are a smoky-brown tint. Aeshna grandis is a Central and Northern European species. It's virtually absent from the Mediterranean and in Italy, for instance, it's limited to the higher altitudes of the Northern alpine regions. It's a fairly large dragonfly. Besides its typical brown colour, the species' distinguishing features include the four light-blue spots at the wing bases, the male's light-blue eye spots, and the yellow bands on the side of the thorax. The Brown Hawker has a particularly elegant flight, alternating short, quick flutters with long, slow glides.

For an overview of the Brown Hawker's distribution in Europe, hover your mouse pointer over the map symbol .
With the authors' permission we have based this map on data published in Kalkman et al. (2010).
Legend: Red = Occurs, White = Doesn't occur; Purple = Extinct; Yellow = Vagrant.

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