Aeshna juncea (Moorland Hawker/Common Hawker)

Another of the large mosaic hawkers. Nominally common it may be but I was in the Pyrenees when I saw my first. I saw and heard a male literally slam into and grab a female (who I think was already ovipositing) beside the Lac de Payolle before the pair flew off in tandem. It seemed like a quite a violent encounter.

Id Notes

• Paired dots on each abdominal segment
• Contrasting brown and yellow side panels on thorax
• Yellow costas
• Thick-stemmed T-mark atop frons
• ♀ very small antehumeral stripes, similar to A. mixta

Moorland/Common Hawker (A. juncea) and Migrant Hawker (A. mixta) can be a source of confusion, particularly since both females have very short antehumeral stripes. Here is a diagram comparing the two to clarify.

male

female

in flight