Migrant Hawker
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Odonata
Suborder:	Anisoptera
Family:	Aeshnidae
Genus:	Aeshna
Species:	A. mixta
Binomial name
Aeshna mixta (Latreille, 1805)

The Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) is with its length of 63 mm one of the smaller species of hawker dragonflies. The species prefers still or slow-flowing water and can tolerate brackish sites. The flight period is from July to the end of October. They can be found in North Africa, southern and central Europe to the Baltic region.

In the United Kingdom this insect was rare until the 1940s when it began migrating from the continent in large numbers. It continues to do so and is now a resident breeding species throughout England and Wales. It reached the Isle of Man in 1998 and Ireland in 2000.

Detail showing characteristic marking

The Migrant Hawker has a characteristic "golf-tee" shaped mark on the second segment of the abdommen.^[1] This distinguishes it from the similar Common Hawker, Aeshna juncea.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Aeshna mixta". British Dragonfly Society. http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/aemix.html. Retrieved 25 August 2009. 

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