Twelve-spotted skimmer
Three black spots on each wing, and the white ones between them mean it is a male.
In brief
Libellula pulchella, Libellulidae, order Odonata.
- Summer adult; the larva is aquatic for a year or more
- Native across most of North America
- Predator, hunting on the wing
Where it lives
Ponds, marshes and slow water across southern Canada and most of the United States. It breeds in still water, and this one was on a dry stalk well away from any: the adults range a long way from where they grew up.
When you see it
Photographed on August 30, 2026, in the evening.
What it eats
Other insects, taken in flight. The larva spends a year or more underwater eating anything it can hold, including tadpoles.
Here
The name counts the black spots: three on each of four wings. The white patches between them belong to the male, and they are what settles the sex from a photograph. A female carries the black spots and nothing between them.
It hunts from a perch, going out after something and coming back to the same stalk.
By Yggdrasil Springs
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