Autumn darter
This dragonfly hatches in lowland rice paddies, flies up into cool mountains for summer, then returns to the lowlands only in autumn, when its body finally turns red.
| Where | Rice paddies, grassland and mountain slopes |
|---|---|
| Size | 35 to 45 mm body length |
| When | June to November |
The Autumn darter is a slender dragonfly with a body 35 to 45 mm long; immature adults of both sexes are yellow-brown, and mature males develop an orange to deep red abdomen while the head and thorax stay brown, so the body is never uniformly bright red.
After emerging in early summer around paddies and swampy lowlands, adults migrate upslope to cooler mountains for the hot months, then move back down to flatland and low mountains by autumn to breed in shallow pools and rice fields.
Traits
Habitat
Farmland
Colour
Red, Orange, Brown
Active
Day
To people
Harmless to people; it only preys on small flying insects such as flies and mosquitoes.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Its closest relative on the Asian mainland and genetically very similar; the two can usually only be told apart by subtle differences in the black stripe pattern on the thorax and in genital structure.
Questions
Is the Autumn darter dangerous to people?
Harmless to people; it only preys on small flying insects such as flies and mosquitoes.
When can you see the Autumn darter?
The Autumn darter can be seen from June to November, by day.
Plate retouched from a photo by りなべる, CC BY 4.0, iNaturalist Licence
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Dragonflies and damselflies›Skimmers›Sympetrum
Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.