This Morning Outside

by Diane Porter

July 14, 2010
On the driveway at Birdwatching Dot Com
Fairfield, Iowa

This is a female Blue-fronted Dancer. It's a damselfly, only about an inch and a half long. The male of the species has blue where this female damselfly is gold, and the last three segments of the male's "tail" (abdomen) are also blue.

Photos copyright 2010 Michael and Diane Porter

There are two color forms of the female Blue-fronted Dancer. This one is called the brown form, though I would call it golden, myself. The other form is blue, but the tip of the abdomen is not blue in the female. All the males have blue.

The scientific name of this species is Argia apicalis. You can see a nice picture of the male at BugGuide.

Great thanks to Steve Hummel for helping get my mind around the two very similar species, this one and Argia tibialis, Blue-tipped Dancer.

—Diane Porter

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