The red dragonfly
In Japan it is called akatombo, the red dragonfly, and it is one of the best-loved insects in the country.
A Japanese garden · Dragonflies, damselflies and mayflies
Autumn darter
Sympetrum frequens
A small dragonfly. The male's abdomen turns bright red in autumn.
- Size
- About 4cm long
- Look for it
- June to November
- Where
- Rice fields, ponds and gardens throughout Japan
Hovers after you, then darts. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Red dragonfly
Good to know
Six things about the red dragonfly
A summer in the mountains
It hatches in the rice fields in early summer, flies up into the cool mountains, and comes back down in autumn.
It reddens as it ages
Young ones are yellow-brown. The males turn red as the weather cools.
It has its own song
A song called Akatombo, about watching red dragonflies at sunset, is known by almost everyone in Japan.
A rice field insect
It lays its eggs in flooded rice fields, and its young grow up in the water among the rice.
The dragonfly islands
An old name for Japan means the islands of the dragonfly.
The real thing
Photos of the red dragonfly
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
In autumn, look over rice fields and gardens in the late afternoon. They perch on the tips of canes and posts, all facing the sun.
How to help
Its numbers fell sharply when certain pesticides were used on rice. Fields farmed without them have many more.
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