Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Libellula pulchella Drury, 1770
Twelve-spotted Skimmer: https://marylandbiodiversity.com/species/737
Synonyms
12-spotted Skimmer 
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1,134 Records

Status

Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) is a very distinctive, generalist skimmer species common at a variety of ponds, lakes, ditches, impoundments, and other bodies of water with emergent vegetation (Paulson, 2011). This dragonfly is common across Maryland, and has been recorded from every county (Richard Orr's The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Maryland and the District of Columbia).

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Source: Wikipedia

Twelve-spotted skimmer
Male
Female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Infraorder: Anisoptera
Family: Libellulidae
Genus: Libellula
Species:
L. pulchella
Binomial name
Libellula pulchella
(Drury, 1773)

The twelve-spotted skimmer (Libellula pulchella) is a common North American skimmer dragonfly, found in southern Canada and in all 48 of the contiguous U.S. states.

It is a large species, at 50 mm (2.0 in) long. Each wing has three brown spots. In adult males, additional white spots form between the brown ones and at the bases of the hindwings; it is sometimes called the ten-spot skimmer for the number of these white spots.

References

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  • Dunkle, Sidney W. (2000). Dragonflies through Binoculars. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 0-19-511268-7.
  • Needham, James G.; Minter J. Westfall Jr.; Michael L. May (2000). Dragonflies of North America (rev. ed.). Gainesville, FL: Scientific Publishers. pp. 719–720. ISBN 0-945417-94-2.
  • Mead, Kurt (2009). Dragonflies of the North Woods (Second ed.). Duluth, MN: Kollath+Stensaas Publishing. pp. 134–135. ISBN 978-0-9792006-5-6.