Complete Guide To The Halloween Pennant Dragonfly

Halloween Pennant Dragonfly Notes

• Halloween Pennant dragonflies are striking and a lot of fun to spot in the wild.
• Look for them in open fields and meadows around lakes, ponds, marshes, and along their banks.
  • Halloween Pennant dragonflies perch on, and forage from, the tips of reeds, twigs, and grasses.
  • They range inland out to approximately 160 m to hunt and roost but always return to the water to lay their eggs.
    • Within this 160m range, mature males are more common than females and immature males within 40m of the water’s edge, while females and immature males are more common at the farthest reaches, between 130-160m (Bried and Ervin 2006, https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2006)26[878:APODAA]2.0.CO;2).
• Halloween Pennant dragonflies are much less territorial than other dragonfly species, like Blue Dashers, Eastern Pondhawks, and Slaty Skimmers.
• Halloween Pennant dragonflies are an “early bird” species and most active in the first part of the day, before around 10:30AM during the summer months.
• People may mistake Halloween Pennant dragonflies for butterflies because:
  • Their coloration looks similar to orange butterflies and brown butterflies.
  • Halloween Pennants forage where butterflies are common, like over meadows.
  • Halloween Pennants flutter as they fly.