Blue-eyed Darner

A beautiful, male Blue-eyed Darner rests on my finger at Cranberry Lake.  The brilliant blue eyes are a particularly striking feature of this species.  This is a "textbook" view of the Blue-eyed Darner, and though it shows the beauty of the animal, it misses the interesting appearance of its face.

Here's a head-on view of the Blue-eyed Darner.  Notice the two prominent primary pseudopupils that seem to be looking right at us.  This species lacks the heavy "eyebrows" and dark "smile line" of the Paddle-tailed Darner (Happy-face), but it still has a nice expression.  The side view above gives no hint of what this dragonfly looks like when viewed from the front.