5 Types of Dragonflies in Australia and How to Identify Them

Working out the different types of dragonflies in Australia gets tricky fast, because so many species share the same blue-and-black colour schemes and the same muddy dams and creek lines. Some of these insects can reach flying speeds of 70 kilometres per hour, making them possibly the fastest flying insects on Earth. Yet a handful of species are distinctive enough that even a casual observer can learn to name them on sight.

Estimates of Australia’s dragonfly and damselfly fauna vary depending on the source and how recently it was updated. The CSIRO’s 2021 field guide puts the figure at 333 species across 113 genera, while the Australian Museum’s more conservative estimate sits closer to 320. Either way, this piece narrows that enormous list down to five dragonflies worth learning first.

Blue-spotted hawker (Adversaeschna brevistyla)

The blue-spotted hawker is one of the more approachable dragonflies for beginners because it turns up almost everywhere and looks the part. Along with the Australian emperor, it belongs to the family Aeshnidae, and Victorian naturalists describe it as common, widespread, and fairly easy to identify compared with the rest of its family.

Look for a slender, powerfully built body marked with pale blue spots running down a mostly dark abdomen, a pattern that gives the species its common name. Hawkers in this family mostly occur along the rivers and streams of higher-rainfall regions, though this particular species also tolerates farm dams and slow-moving ponds.

Like most Australian dragonflies, its large compound eyes meet at the top of the head, which helps separate it from damselflies at a glance. It hunts on the wing over open water, patrolling a beat rather than perching for long stretches, so patience pays off if you are trying to photograph one.

Australian emperor

The Australian emperor (Anax papuensis) is the heavyweight of the Aeshnidae family sharing this list with the blue-spotted hawker, and it is built for endurance rather than short bursts. Adults are large, robust fliers with green thoraxes and blue-washed abdomens, and they favour bigger, more permanent bodies of water than many of their relatives.

This species shares the powerful, almost continuous flight typical of hawkers and emperors, cruising low over open water while hunting smaller flying insects. Like other dragonflies, it relies on forward-pointing legs that form a basket for snatching prey mid-air, a hunting method that makes dragonflies effective natural pest control around waterways.

Because the Australian emperor and the blue-spotted hawker are both described as easy to tell apart from the rest of their family, they make a useful starting pair for anyone new to Australian Odonata. Size is often the quickest clue: emperors are noticeably bulkier through the thorax than the more slender hawker.

Southern vicetail (Hemigomphus gouldii)

The southern vicetail belongs to the Gomphidae family, a group known in Australia as hunters and vicetails. Members of this family are typically medium-sized dragonflies patterned in black and yellow, with the markings across the top of the abdomen often the key to identification.

Vicetails and their gomphid relatives also stand out structurally: this is one of the families in which the eyes are narrowly separated rather than meeting at the top of the head, unlike most other Australian dragonfly species. Southern vicetails favour rocky rivers and flowing streams rather than still water, and adults often perch low on rocks or streamside vegetation.

Confirming a southern vicetail sighting is genuinely difficult from a photo alone. According to identification notes from the Australian Museum, experts base southern vicetail identification mostly on the antehumeral stripe rather than the superior appendages, since those appendages are hard to see from above, and the setal tufts on the male’s underside are often not visible either, meaning genitalia frequently become the deciding feature.

Pro Tip: If you are photographing a vicetail or any gomphid for identification, try to capture the insect from the side, from above, and from underneath. A single top-down shot rarely provides enough detail for a confident species call.

Scarlet percher (Diplacodes haematodes)

The scarlet percher sits in the Libellulidae family, described by Victorian dragonfly watchers as a diverse group of small to medium-sized dragonflies that includes many of Australia’s brightest perchers and skimmers. True to the family name, this species spends long stretches sitting in the open on twigs, reeds, or bare ground near water rather than patrolling constantly like a hawker.

Mature males are unmistakable: a vivid, almost fluorescent red runs across the body, making them some of the most photogenic dragonflies around still ponds and slow wetlands. Females and younger males look far plainer, which is typical for the family. Queensland Museum entomologists note that males are often easier to identify than females because they carry brighter colouring, and this pattern is especially pronounced in the Libellulidae family.

That colour gap means a plain reddish-brown female percher can be mistaken for an entirely different species if you only know the bright red male. Checking body shape and perching behaviour alongside colour helps avoid that mix-up.

Swamp bluet (Coenagrion lyelli)

The swamp bluet is technically a damselfly rather than a true dragonfly, though it belongs to the same order, Odonata, and gets grouped alongside dragonflies in most general field guides. Australian Geographic describes it as the iridescent swamp bluet of south-eastern Australia, and that shimmering quality is one of its most obvious features in good light.