Dragonfly
Blue Dasher
Pachydiplax longipennis
Small, pale-blue, and always on a favourite perch.
Least ConcernIUCN status
30.0km/h top speed
6.0cm wingspan
4.2cm body length
0.5years lifespan
Speed against a 60 km/h scale — the ceiling for the fastest dragonflies.
The blue dasher is a perch-hunter: it picks a stem, watches, sprints out for a fly and comes right back to the same stem.
Habitat. Still, weedy water across North America
Posts featuring Blue Dasher
💠 Dragonfly Field Notes
Field Notes: A Pond in June, Hour by Hour
Nothing rare, nothing dramatic. Just a small pond, one warm day, and everything that happened over it.
🌊 Wings & Water
Five Years Underwater: The Half of a Dragonfly's Life Nobody Photographs
The bright adult you see over the water is a brief final chapter. The book is mostly set underwater, in the dark.