Skimmers are part of larger dragonfly family

I found a skimmer sunning herself on my lettuce on a recent morning and thought an article about her would be fitting.

She belongs to the Skimmer family (Libellulidae), which contains our most common and colorful dragonflies. They are the largest family of dragonflies with nearly 1,000 species and can be found all over the world.

Skimmers tend to fly low over the water, often following the same path and returning to the same perch.

Their habitat occurs near lakes, ponds and marshes -- particularly those with exposed shorelines. Sunlight is important to these cold-blooded predators. In the early morning, they can often be seen with their wings extended, seemingly in a slight stupor as they bask in the sun and warm themselves enough to take flight.

Skimmers have two pairs of large, delicate and often patterned wings.

Their unique wing structure makes for fanciful and agile flight patterns. An adult dragonfly can move in any of six different directions: upward, downward, forward, backward, to the left and to the right. Amazingly, they also have the ability to remain stationary in space using flight muscles that control each of the four wings separately.

Males and females differ in appearance with the male being quite colorful as opposed to the blander female. Because of this, the females can be quite confusing. Following are three that fall into this category: the 12-spotted skimmer, the common whitetail and the widow skimmer.

The female 12-spotted skimmer has three dark spots on each wing, one near the base where it attaches to the body, one in the center that nearly spans the wing and one on the tip. Its abdomen is brown with a light stripe on each side. The line is a yellow, more or less solid line.

The common whitetail skimmer's wings are very similar to those of the 12-spotted skimmer. However, the two can be distinguished by their abdominal markings: the 12-spotted skimmer has straight yellow stripes running along the sides, while the common whitetail has broken, zigzag white markings.

The widow skimmer's name means sorrowful or mournful perhaps because the wings seem to be draped in mourning crepe. The wings have more of a solid brown band with another brown spot at the tip. The abdomen has a dark band at the center with a yellow stripe running along each side.

Skimmers are beneficial insects. Adult dragonflies feed on a variety of flying insects, including flies, moths, flying ants, termites and mosquitoes. Under favorable conditions, a single dragonfly may consume dozens to hundreds of mosquitoes in a day.