Lesser Emperor

Characteristics

A beautiful dragonfly with green and light blue.

Its eyes are yellow-green, and its thorax is a slightly darker green. The base of the male's abdomen is a vivid light blue. The underside of the third abdominal segment reflects silver, which is also its Japanese name.

How to distinguish between Silver Dragonfly and Black-striped Silver Dragonfly

Silver Dragonfly and Black-striped Silver Dragonfly can be distinguished by the presence or absence of black stripes on their thorax. Silver Dragonfly's thorax is uniformly green. Silver Dragonfly appears to be a size smaller, but it is somewhat difficult to distinguish them when flying.

Ecology

They can be found in waterside areas all over Japan from spring to the end of autumn. They have territories and fly around or hover. If other individuals or dragonflies smaller than themselves invade, they will chase them. They feed on insects.

The male and female fly together and land near the water surface to lay eggs.

Habitat

Tama River midstream

Photographed in a puddle in the Tama River midstream. The area surrounded by cattails seems to be its territory, and it circles around and chases away other dragonflies that come by.

I was able to photograph it as it often hovered.