Great Blue Skimmer

The Great Blue Skimmer is a large, robust dragonfly of the skimmer family, notable for its size and striking blue coloration in mature males. It ranges through the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States, often favoring shadier, more wooded wetland habitats than many of its skimmer relatives.

Adult males develop a rich powder-blue pruinescence over the thorax and abdomen with age, paired with pale green to blue-green eyes, while females and immatures show a browner body with pale lateral stripes. Its notably large size, even among skimmers, helps set it apart in the field.

• Mature males: pale to medium blue pruinose body with a blue-green face and eyes
• Females and immatures: brown thorax with cream side stripes, brown abdomen with pale markings
• Wings mostly clear, sometimes with a faint brownish tinge at the base
• Notably large and heavy-bodied compared to most other skimmers
• Similar to the Slaty Skimmer but larger overall, with a paler blue-green face rather than black

This species favors shaded or partly shaded wetlands, including wooded swamps, spring-fed ponds, and slow, vegetated streams. It is most common in the southeastern United States and mid-Atlantic region, extending north into parts of New England and west toward Texas. Adults fly from late spring through summer into early fall.

Males patrol and perch along shaded shorelines, often choosing sunlit gaps within otherwise wooded wetlands, and defend territory from rival males with fast chases. Like other skimmers, adults are agile aerial hunters that capture mosquitoes, gnats, and other small flying insects. The aquatic nymphs are ambush predators among submerged debris and roots, feeding on aquatic insect larvae and other small invertebrates, and both nymph and adult stages help regulate insect populations in and around their wetland habitats.

Females deposit eggs by dipping the abdomen tip into the water while in flight, often while accompanied or guarded by the male. The eggs hatch into nymphs that live submerged among leaf litter, roots, and debris, growing through a series of molts over roughly one to two years depending on climate and food availability. Mature nymphs crawl out of the water onto emergent vegetation or nearby structures to complete metamorphosis, emerging as winged adults that leave the aquatic stage behind. Adults are active fliers for several weeks, focused on feeding, mating, and egg-laying before the life cycle repeats.