Eastern Amberwing, female
Perithemis tenera
Eastern Amberwing · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 26 July 2025
A female Eastern Amberwing perched on the very tip of a stem in the July border, wings dropped forward - not the meadowhawk it was first written up as. Amberwings are dragonflies of ponds and slow water across the eastern United States, and one of the smallest in North America at barely an inch long.
Built to pass for a wasp: a short, stout abdomen banded in brown and yellow, wings marked with brown patches rather than the solid amber of the male, and pale spots along the thorax. It is easy to take for a wasp until it flies. The mimicry is thought to work on birds rather than on anything the amberwing hunts; a dragonfly this small is prey as often as predator.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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