Bug FAQSpatterdock Darner
Rhionaeschna mutata · Order: Odonata · Family: Aeshnidae
It lives in North America and prefers small, heavily vegetated, fish-free ponds with wooded edges and sphagnum moss.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Rhionaeschna mutata, called the spatterdock darner, belongs to the dragonfly family Aeshnidae.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It breeds in small, vegetated, semi-permanent or temporary ponds that lack fish and have wooded riparian margins and sphagnum moss.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
The species is found in North America.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 24 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Aeshnidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhionaeschna_mutata
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.