Moorland Hawker
(Aeshna juncea)

The Moorland Hawker is a large, dark dragonfly of the North of Europe. In Italy we've only managed to find it at high altitudes in the Northern alpine regions. The male's body colours are mainly black and blue, while the female's are brown and yellow. Apart from the male's seemingly endless and tireless flight, Aeshna juncea's characteristic features include the two yellow bands on the side of the thorax, and the yellow costa (i.e. the leading edge of the wings). The two features which most reliably distinguish this species from the similar-looking A. subarctica are the yellow spot immediately behind the eye (nearly always present in juncea; never in subarctica), and the width of the line across the face, which at the base of the eye narrows in juncea but, if anything, widens in subarctica.

For an overview of the Moorland 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).

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