Aeshna

Aeshna speciosa fossil

These are relatively large dragonflies. Their thoraces and abdomens are brown in color, with blue or yellow stripes or spots on the thorax, and yellow, blue or green spots on the abdomen.

Natalia von Ellenrieder's 2003 paper demonstrated that the Holarctic and Neotropical species placed in this genus did not share a common ancestor, and proposed the latter be placed in the genus Rhionaeschna.

The name Aeshna was coined by the Danish entomologist Fabricius in the 18th century. The name may have resulted from a printer's error in spelling the Greek Aechma, "a spear".[2] The spelling Aeschna has been intermittently used over a period of time, but is now abandoned for the original name Aeshna. However, derived genus names (such as Rhionaeschna) retain the 'sch' spelling, as this is how they were first cited.

Aeshna andancensis holotype wing

Many species formerly included in Aeshna have been split into other genera, including Afroaeschna, Andaeschna, Pinheyschna, Rhionaeschna, and Zosteraeschna.[3]

The genus Aeshna includes these species:[3]

• Aeshna affinis Van der Linden, 1820 – southern migrant hawker,[4] blue-eyed hawker[5]
• †Aeshna andancensis Nel & Brisac, 1994[6]
• Aeshna athalia Needham, 1930
• Aeshna caerulea (Ström, 1783) – azure hawker[4]
• Aeshna canadensis Walker, 1908 – Canada darner[7]
• Aeshna clepsydra Say, 1839 – mottled darner[7]
• Aeshna constricta Say, 1839 – lance-tipped darner[7]
• Aeshna crenata Hagen, 1856 – Siberian hawker[5]
• Aeshna cyanea (Müller, 1764) – blue hawker,[5] southern hawker[4]
• Aeshna eremita Scudder, 1866 – lake darner[7]
• Aeshna frontalis Navás, 1936
• Aeshna grandis (Linnaeus, 1758) – brown hawker[4]
• Aeshna interrupta Walker, 1908 – variable darner[7]
• Aeshna isoceles - Norfolk Hawker
• Aeshna juncea (Linnaeus, 1758) – common hawker,[4] sedge darner,[7] moorland hawker[5]
• Aeshna mixta Latreille, 1805 – migrant hawker[4]
• Aeshna palmata Hagen, 1856 – paddle-tailed darner[7]
• Aeshna persephone Donnelly, 1961 – Persephone's darner[7]
• Aeshna petalura Martin, 1909
• Aeshna septentrionalis Burmeister, 1839 – azure darner[7]
• Aeshna serrata Hagen, 1856 – Baltic hawker[5]
• Aeshna shennong Zhang & Cai, 2014
• Aeshna sitchensis Hagen, 1861 – zigzag darner[7]
• Aeshna subarctica Walker, 1908 – bog hawker,[5] subarctic darner[8]
• Aeshna tuberculifera Walker, 1908 – black-tipped darner[7]
• Aeshna umbrosa Walker, 1908 – shadow darner[7]
• Aeshna vercanica Schneider, Schneider, Schneider, Verstraete & Dumont, 2015
• Aeshna verticalis Hagen, 1861 – green-striped darner[7]
• Aeshna viridis Eversmann, 1836 – green hawker[5]
• Aeshna walkeri Kennedy, 1917 – Walker's darner[7]
• Aeshna williamsoniana Calvert, 1905 – Williamson's darner[9]

• Aeshna, BugGuide
• Corbet, P. S. 1999. Dragonflies: Behavior and Ecology of Odonata. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA, 829pp.
• von Ellenrieder, N., 2003. A synopsis of the Neotropical species of 'Aeshna' Fabricius: the genus Rhionaeschna Förster (Odonata: Aeshnidae). - Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 146 (1): 67-207.