Species Spotlight: Variable Darner

Darners are large, conspicuous dragonflies. The species in the spotlight today, the Variable Darner, is even more conspicuous because it has a penchant for landing on vertical surfaces—like fence posts, walls, tree trunks, and people. It is not a particularly common species, however, at least in the northern Puget Sound area. We generally see only a few each year.

The most distinctive field marks for the Variable Darner are the "pinched in" side stripes on the thorax. The stripes are narrower in the middle than at either end, and sometimes "pinch off" entirely to leave a spot at the top and bottom where the side stripe would normally be on other darner species.



The Variable Darner has minimal to nonexistent front stripes on the thorax. In addition, the blue line on top segment 2 of the abdomen is generally incomplete—it starts from the rear of the segment, but only goes about halfway toward the front of the segment.



The tenth segment of the abdomen is cream colored in Variable Darners, and the appendages are simple—that is, they taper smoothly to a point.