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A male southern migrant hawker perched on a grass stem. It's a blue and black dragonfly with dazzlingly blue eyes

Southern migrant hawker © Henry Stanier

Southern migrant hawker

Scientific name: Aeshna affinis
This dazzling dragonfly, also known as the blue-eyed hawker, is a recent arrival to Britain.

Species information

Statistics

Length: 60 mm

When to see

June to September

About

The southern migrant hawker used to be an extremely rare migrant from the Mediterranean. It has become much more common in the last two decades and has even started breeding in southern England.

In continental Europe, southern migrant hawkers are known to breed in shallow pools that dry up over summer. In Britain, they're often found along damp, reedy ditches. Males fly up and down their chosen ditch, looking for females and defending their territory from incursions by other males.

How to identify

Males are strikingly blue, with bright blue eyes. They have yellowish-green sides to the thorax and a black abdomen with extensive blue markings. There is a blue, triangular marking at the top of the abdomen. They could be confused with the migrant hawker, but this has duller eyes and appears less blue overall. The migrant hawker also has a yellowish marking at the top of the abdomen shaped like a golf tee, and the large blue spots on its abdomen alternate with smaller spots.

Females are brown and yellow. They also have a large, triangular marking at the top of the abdomen - though in females this is yellow.

Distribution

The first breeding colonies were established along the Thames Estuary, though they are spreading across southern England. Migrants are most often encountered along coastal parts of southern and eastern England. They have also been recorded in Wales.

Habitats

Did you know?

Before the 21st century, there was only one confirmed record of southern migrant hawker in Britain. It came from Kent in 1952. There were a few more records in 2006, before an influx in 2010 led to the first records of them breeding in England.