Black saddlebags
The black saddlebags is a big, thin, black dragonfly. Near its body, each back wing has a big black patch. It looks as if the dragonfly is carrying two saddlebags, like a horse.
How big is it?
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Fun facts
Both the young ones in the water and the grown-ups eat lots of mosquitoes.
Its head is much wider than the rest of its thin body.
While laying eggs, the girl dips down to the water, and the boy then grabs her again.
Grown-ups, especially the boys, sometimes fly together in big swarms.
Some of them go on long journeys, called migrations.
Most asked questions about Black saddlebags
?Why is it called black saddlebags?
The black patches on its back wings look like saddlebags hanging on a horse.
?Is the black saddlebags dangerous?
No. It does not sting and it helps by eating mosquitoes.
?How big is the black saddlebags?
It is about 5 centimetres long, quite big for a dragonfly.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tramea lacerata
- Named by
- Hagen, 1861
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Black saddlebags (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by JerryFriedman. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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