Flight season: late May to late August, sometimes to mid-September.
Population: common, generally encountered at ponds or marshes.
Forages along the trans-Canada Trail, but usually doesn't wander too far from its preferred habitat.
Length: about 40 mm to 45 mm.
Females are distinguished from female and immature male Twelve-spotted Skimmers
by the markings on their respective abdomens (see notes below).
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Tweed, Ontario, about ½ km west of town, a marsh bordering the trans-Canada Trail:
typical local marsh with Cattails, sedges and other emergent vegetation, various small willows, alders, dogwoods and some Tamarack.
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Male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) –
a fast, robust dragonfly that often prefers to perch on logs, stones or the ground
(June 26, 2012).
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Teneral male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia)
June 06, 2012
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Female Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) –
a late flier, with somewhat lackluster markings and colors due to age
(September 16, 2014).
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Tweed, Ontario, along the trans-Canada Trail about 2 km west of town:
woodlands and meadows supporting tall grasses and wildflowers,
with nearby marshes providing breeding habitat.
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Immature male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) –
still too young to have developed the characteristic brilliant
white pruinescence on its abdomen (May 30, 2014).
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Tweed, Ontario, along the trans-Canada Trail about 2 km east of town:
woodland with sunlit open spaces created by the trail,
Stoco Lake is not far to the south.
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Female Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) –
the dark patterning on the wings is very similar to that of female and immature male Twelve-spotted Skimmers.
However, the female Common Whitetail has a series of bright white dots edged with contrasting black on its abdomen.
Compare to the continuous pale yellow stripe of the
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
(June 06, 2011).
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Northeast of Tweed on Highway 7, near Studio 737:
sunlit forest clearing with shrubs, tall grasses and wildflowers.
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Female Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia)
June 19, 2011
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