Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis) |
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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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