Flame Skimmer

Libellula saturata — the flame skimmer — is one of the most spectacular dragonflies in western North America and a flagship species of desert and Mediterranean-climate freshwater pond habitats. The species is widespread across the western US from western Texas through California and the Pacific Northwest, plus Mexico and parts of Central America. Adults are 5-6 cm body length with 7.5-8.5 cm wingspan. Males are entirely BRILLIANT FLAME-RED across the body, head, and wing veins, with dramatically orange-tinted wings (the wings are translucent but the leading edges are richly amber-orange) — giving the species the appearance of a small flying ember. Females are paler tan-brown with similarly red-tinted wing leading edges and yellow-and-brown abdominal patterning. The species is a sit-and-wait perching predator: adults defend small territories from prominent perches (rock outcroppings, dead twigs, fence posts) near pond and slow-stream margins, sallying out to capture passing flying insects (mosquitoes, midges, small flies, smaller damselflies) and returning to the same perch repeatedly. The species is one of the most ecologically important mosquito predators in arid western US pond habitats — including especially desert oases and reservoir margins where mosquito populations otherwise build up to nuisance and disease-vector levels. Aquatic naiads develop in still and slow water over 1-2 years, hunting mosquito larvae, mayfly nymphs, and small fish; the naiads are particularly tolerant of the warm, low-oxygen, alkaline conditions typical of desert oasis ponds where many other dragonfly species cannot persist. The flame skimmer is one of the most-photographed dragonflies in the American Southwest because of the dramatic coloration and the species' tendency to hold predictable perches that allow extended observation.