The brown hawker (''Aeshna grandis'') is a species of large

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Aeshnidae Aeshnidae, also called aeshnids, hawkers, or darners, is a family of dragonflies, found nearly worldwide, with more than 50 genera and over 450 species. The family includes some of the largest dragonflies. Description Common worldwide or nearl ...

, the hawkers. This species is found in Europe and temperate Asia, except the far east of Asia.

Taxonomy

The brown hawker was first formally described as ''Libellula grandis'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the 10 edition of ''Systema Naturae'' published in 1758. It is now classified in the genus ''

Aeshna ''Aeshna'', or the mosaic darners, is a genus of dragonfly, dragonflies from the family Aeshnidae. Species within this genus are generally known as "hawkers" (Old World) or "darners" (New World). Description These are relatively large drag ...

'' in the family Aeshnidae, the hawkers, in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Odonata Odonata is an order of predatory flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies (as well as the '' Epiophlebia'' damsel-dragonflies). The two major groups are distinguished with dragonflies (Anisoptera) usually being bulkier with ...

, teh dragonflies and damselflies. This species is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus ''

''.

Description

The brown hawker is a large dragonfly with a body length of . The body is brown marked with yellow stripes in the thorax and the wings are tinged brown. The males have small markings of blue and yellow and are noticeable waisted, the females a=have small yellow marking. The nymphs are long and streamlined, in length, with banded legs, stripes on the head and thorax, a wide facial mask and a spine on each side of abdominal segment 6.

Distribution and habitat

The brown hawker is found from southern Great Britain and Ireland east through Europe, including much of

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and ; ), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is a peninsula in Europe which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scandinavian and Kola Peninsula, Kola peninsulas, mainland ...

into Asia. It is most abundant in central, eastern and northern Europe and extends as far east as the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

in Siberia, it is absent from the Scotland, northern Scandinavia and much of southern Europe. In the north, brown hawkers prefer slow-flowing or standing waters including natural waters such as large pools, lakes, fens and oxbows, as well as man-made waterbodies such as canals, ponds, ditches, reservoirs and peat diggings, it is closely tied to forest or woodland. In the south it is less catholic in its choice of habitats and prefers mature habitats and avoid early succesional habitats.

Behaviour

he brown hawker lays its eggs in floating or emergent vegetation or timber in standing or slow moving water. It does not typically hunt near water and can be observed haking in woodland rides late into summer evenings. In Great Britain the main fligh period of the brown hawker is between May and September,

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q798784 Dragonflies of Europe Aeshnidae Insects described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus