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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Mature males wore deep slate-blue to dark blue-black pruinescence across the entire body (thorax, abdomen, and face), and the dark blue sat so saturated that the color read as near-black at distances beyond six feet and only resolved as blue within arm's length under direct sunlight
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
Dark blue dragonfly on a stick at the pond, wearing something darker than the chalky dasher blue and moodier than the powdery great blue skimmer. A deep, dark, slate-blue that read almost black at binocular distance and only revealed the blue tone at arm's length in direct sun. The slaty skimmer (Libellula incesta) wore the darkest blue of any North Louisiana dragonfly, and the color earned the "slaty" name from observers who saw gray-blue slate rather than bright blue sky when the light hit the body at the right angle.
About an inch and three-quarters to two inches long, the slaty skimmer perched on vegetation at pond margins and slow-water edges across every parish from May through September, and the dark coloring blended into the shaded vegetation so effectively that the observer walked past ten slaty skimmers at a pond before the search image calibrated to "look for the dark blue dragonfly that reads as a shadow on a stick."
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: on a cool June morning flew thirty minutes before the first blue dasher reached flight temperature on the nearby sunny weed tip, and the thirty-minute head start gave the slaty skimmer uncontested feeding time during the cool-air window the dashers could not access. Post-rain feeding gave the slaty skimmer a window of exclusive access to the pond's insect traffic: the gnats and midges that emerged from the water surface after a rain event flew at the same time the slaty skimmers resumed patrol, and the dashers that would compete for the same prey sat grounded on wet weed tips waiting for the sun to dry the perch and warm the body. A slaty skimmer feeding at a shaded pond margin ten minutes after a July rain ate the post-rain insect emergence without competition from any other dragonfly at the same pond.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: Scan the shaded twigs and vegetation at the pond margin at waist-to-chest height for a dark dragonfly that reads as near-black in the shade and resolves as dark blue only when the light hits the body directly.Beaver ponds in forested drainages across Winn, Claiborne, and Natchitoches Parishes put slaty skimmers at the shaded margins during summer.
Photo Gallery
What Is the Slaty Skimmer Often Confused With?
Sorting male slaty skimmers from female slaty skimmers at a shaded North Louisiana pond demanded close-range views that the dark habitat made difficult. Both sexes perched on similar twigs at similar heights in similar shade, with males wearing dark slate-blue and females wearing dark brown. The color difference told the sexes apart at ranges where the shade allowed the color to resolve (under six feet in decent light), and the color difference vanished at distances where the shade turned both sexes to near-black silhouettes against the dark background. A slaty skimmer that crossed from shade to sun for even a single wingbeat revealed the sex by color: blue flash meant male, brown flash meant female. Watching the shade-sun boundary for crossing dragonflies gave the observer a sorting opportunity the full-shade views did not provide, and three minutes of watching the boundary between the sunny weed tips and the shaded twigs sorted every slaty skimmer that crossed during the watch.
Drag the handle left and right to compare Slaty Skimmer side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
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Accessibility
Choose stable, publicly accessible viewing areas and use binoculars or a zoom lens when terrain, water, vegetation, or distance limits close observation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Slaty Skimmer live in North Louisiana?
Yes. The slaty skimmer (Libellula incesta) wore the darkest blue of any North Louisiana dragonfly, and the color earned the "slaty" name from observers who saw gray-blue slate rather than bright blue sky when the light hit the body at the right angle. North Louisiana's ponds, lakes, swamp edges, and sluggish waterways with vegetated margins and at least partial shade support slaty skimmer populations throughout the summer flight season.
The dragonfly tolerated more shade than the blue dasher and occupied a habitat niche between the dasher's open-sun preference and the great blue skimmer's forest-edge patrol, giving North Louisiana three blue-bodied dragonflies at three different shade levels at many shared ponds.
How do you identify Slaty Skimmer?
Sorting male slaty skimmers from female slaty skimmers at a shaded North Louisiana pond demanded close-range views that the dark habitat made difficult. Both sexes perched on similar twigs at similar heights in similar shade, with males wearing dark slate-blue and females wearing dark brown. The color difference told the sexes apart at ranges where the shade allowed the color to resolve (under six feet in decent light), and the color difference vanished at distances where the shade turned both sexes to near-black silhouettes against the dark background. A slaty skimmer that crossed from shade to sun for even a single wingbeat revealed the sex by color: blue flash meant male, brown flash meant female. Watching the shade-sun boundary for crossing dragonflies gave the observer a sorting opportunity the full-shade views did not provide, and three minutes of watching the boundary between the sunny weed tips and the shaded twigs sorted every slaty skimmer that crossed during the watch.
What does Slaty Skimmer eat?
on a cool June morning flew thirty minutes before the first blue dasher reached flight temperature on the nearby sunny weed tip, and the thirty-minute head start gave the slaty skimmer uncontested feeding time during the cool-air window the dashers could not access.
Post-rain feeding gave the slaty skimmer a window of exclusive access to the pond's insect traffic: the gnats and midges that emerged from the water surface after a rain event flew at the same time the slaty skimmers resumed patrol, and the dashers that would compete for the same prey sat grounded on wet weed tips waiting for the sun to dry the perch and warm the body. A slaty skimmer feeding at a shaded pond margin ten minutes after a July rain ate the post-rain insect emergence without competition from any other dragonfly at the same pond.
Is Slaty Skimmer dangerous to people?
No. This species is not dangerous to people when it is observed without handling or disturbance
