The Australian emperor dragonfly, also known as the yellow emperor dragonfly, the Baron Dragonfly in New Zealand, scientific name ''Anax papuensis'', is a species of

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 ...

in the

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 ...

family. It is black with yellow dots along its tail.

Description

The Australian emperor is a very large dragonfly, up to 70 mm long. Its abdomen is marked boldly in black and yellow. The thorax is greenish-grey. The head is yellow with a T-shaped mark on the forehead (frons). The eyes are yellow-green. The leading edges of the wings are yellow. The insect habitually hunts fairly slowly, patrolling up and down like other hawkers, with short bursts at high speed. Their wingspan is . Males and females are similar.

Distribution and habitat

The Australian emperor is found throughout

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In the state of Victoria, it has a split distribution: below about 600 metres in altitude, and above about 1200 metres, apparently because it avoids forested areas. It is also found in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, the

Cocos-Keeling Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands (), officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands (; ), are an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka and rel ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Sumba Sumba (; ), natively also spelt as Humba, Hubba, Suba, or Zuba (in Sumba languages) is an Indonesian island (part of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago group) located in the Eastern Indonesia and administratively part of the East Nusa Tenggara pro ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

.Theischinger, 2006. The Australian emperor is widespread and common on larger bodies of water with tall vegetation on the banks. Like other hawkers, it may hunt far from water. It flies throughout the summer from September to May.Hemianax papuensis
Retrieved 16 January 2012

Behaviour

The Australian emperor is notable as the dragonfly in which

motion camouflage Motion camouflage is camouflage which provides a degree of concealment for a moving object, given that motion makes objects easy to detect however well their coloration matches their background or breaks up their outlines. The principal for ...

was studied by Mizutani et al.: males of ''Anax papuensis'' are fiercely

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

, and approach and attack rivals, the males choose a flight path that keeps their image as seen by the target still with respect to a landmark point. The attacking dragonfly thus looms larger in the target's eyes, but otherwise does not seem to move until it is very close. The males are very protective of their females. In case of intrusion of another individual, he will drive it away by engaging in a series of noisy air battles. Females lay their

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

under water.

Gallery

Australian Emperor Dragonfly - Hemianax papuensis.jpg, Australian emperor has a wingspan of about 11 cm Australian Emperor 6630.jpg, Male in flight The biology of dragonflies (Odonata or Paraneuroptera) (1917) (19759604054).jpg, Hatching of larva Anax papuensis female wings (35012715496).jpg, Female wings Anax papuensis male wings (35012727886).jpg, Male wings

Bibliography

* Günther Theischinger and John Hawking. ''The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia.'' CSIRO Publishing, 2006.

References

External links

Brisbane Dragons

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2202920 Aeshnidae Insects of Australia Insects described in 1839