White-tailed skimmer Coloring Pages

White-tailed skimmer

The White-tailed skimmer is the most familiar dragonfly in Japan. You can often find them in parks, rice fields, and around ponds. On hot summer days, you can often see them zooming smoothly through open spaces and parks.

Males and Females Have Different Colors!

The White-tailed skimmer is unique because the males and females look very different in color.

• Males: Their whole body is covered in a white powder that looks like sprinkled salt, making them look light blue to pale gray. This salty color is actually how they got their Japanese name!
• Females and Young Males: Their bodies have yellow and black stripes. Females keep this color even as adults. Males grow white powder as they become adults, turning light blue.

Also, adult males have a tiny bump on the bottom of their chest.

Where Do They Live?

White-tailed skimmers live anywhere with clean water, like rivers, ponds, marshes, and rice fields. You can find them all over Japan, so they are easy to spot!

What Do They Eat?

The White-tailed skimmer is a hunter that eats small bugs. They catch flies, mosquitoes, and small butterflies right in the air. When they are babies—called "nymphs"—they live in the water and eat tiny water fleas and mosquito larvae.

Life of a White-tailed skimmer

The female White-tailed skimmer lays her eggs on the water surface. The baby nymphs hatch and spend about one year underwater. When the nymph grows up, it climbs out of the water and transforms into an adult dragonfly. The moment a nymph turns into a dragonfly is truly magical!

Greater White-tailed Skimmer

The Greater White-tailed skimmer is a friend of the White-tailed skimmer. Just like its name says, it is a "big" White-tailed skimmer! Its body is a little larger than a regular White-tailed skimmer.

• Males: They look a lot like male White-tailed skimmers, covered in white powder. But they often look a bit darker or blacker.
• Females and Young Males: Just like female White-tailed skimmers, they have yellow and black stripes.

Greater White-tailed skimmers are a little harder to find, but they like to live in the same kind of places.

How to Tell Them Apart

White-tailed skimmers and Greater White-tailed skimmers look very similar, but you can spot the differences if you look closely! Check their size, body color, and chest patterns to tell them apart.

• Size: The Greater White-tailed skimmer is a little bigger than the White-tailed skimmer.
• Male Body Color: Male White-tailed skimmers have lots of bright light-blue powder. Male Greater White-tailed skimmers usually have white powder over a darker, blackish body.
• Females and Young Males: Female White-tailed skimmers have yellow and black stripes all the way to the tip of their tail. Female Greater White-tailed skimmers usually have a black tail tip.
• Chest Pattern: The Greater White-tailed skimmer has thick black stripes on its chest. The White-tailed skimmer either has no stripes there or very thin ones.
• Female Tail Tip: Female Greater White-tailed skimmers have a tiny swollen part at the very tip of their tail.

How to Choose Your Colors

Try using different colors for the boy and girl White-tailed skimmers to show how they look different!

• Boy's body: Color it softly with light blue or light gray. This makes it look like it has white powder on it!
• Girl's body: Color it with yellow and black one after the other to make clear stripes. Try to make neat stripes all the way to the tip of its belly.
• Wings: Dragonfly wings are very thin and clear. You can make them look see-through just by tracing the edges with light brown or gray! Be sure to draw the black marks at the base and tips of the wings too.
• Eyes: The White-tailed skimmer has very big, pretty eyes. Using dark blue or blue-green will make it look full of life!

Tips for Enjoying Your Coloring Page!

• Background: Imagine the watery areas or grassy spots where the White-tailed skimmer likes to live, and color the background! It is also fun to add water and grass with light blue and green.
• Making it look 3D: If you add shadows with a slightly darker color at the base of the wings or the thin parts of the belly, it will look 3D!
• Use your imagination: It is okay if you do not use real colors! Feel free to draw a colorful White-tailed skimmer with any colors you like!