The Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator), a conspicuous dragonfly and at the same time the largest in the family Aeshnidae in our region. It is typically 66 to 84 mm long, and its wingspan is about 9.5 cm.
The male has green-blue eyes. Its thorax, viewed from the side, is a uniform light green, without dark markings. On the dorsal side of the thorax, just before the wings, adult males have two light blue triangular marks. A black stripe is characteristic, running along the middle of the dorsal side of the blue abdomen. Immature males have a green thorax, their abdomen is not blue, but dirty pink. The black stripe along the dorsal side of the abdomen is also characteristic of young individuals and females.
For adult females with green and black bodies it is characteristic that they lay eggs during the hottest part of the summer. When the males rest during the early afternoon, the females go to the water on their own, where the eggs are mainly laid in floating aquatic vegetation. For other European species of this genus, it is characteristic that the males guard the female during oviposition.
The Emperor dragonfly is a resident of standing water bodies exposed to the sun. It prefers larger and lushly overgrown ones, but it also occurs in smaller standing waters.
Most adults are on the wing from June to August. The Emperor dragonfly inhabits warmer regions of the Mediterranean and Africa, and has spread across much of Europe only in recent decades.
