Ruddy darter
The ruddy darter is a small dragonfly. The grown-up males are bright blood red, and the females are golden yellow with black marks. Its legs are all black, which helps you tell it apart from its look-alike cousins.
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Fun facts
The males are not red when they are young. They turn blood red as they grow up.
Its body gets wider near the end, like a little club.
The male and female fly together joined up and dip over the water to lay eggs.
While the female lays eggs, the male often hovers nearby and chases other males away.
Its young spend a whole year under water before they climb out and become dragonflies.
Most asked questions about Ruddy darter
?Does the ruddy darter live in Estonia?
Yes. It lives in Estonia and in most other countries of Europe.
?Is the ruddy darter dangerous?
No. Dragonflies cannot sting, and it is harmless to people.
?How big is the ruddy darter?
Its body is about 3.4 to 3.6 centimetres long, and its wings measure up to 6 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Sympetrum sanguineum
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Ruddy darter (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 Jörg Hempel. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, 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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