Swift Setwing Dragonfly

About the Swift Setwing Dragonfly

The Swift Setwing is a sharp-looking, fast-living dragonfly of Texas ponds and slow waters, named for its habit of perching with wings swept forward and down - "set" like a sprinter in the blocks - and for the darting speed it shows when it launches.

It is a dark dragonfly overall, brown-and-yellow patterned on the thorax, with a slim abdomen and a small dark patch at the base of the hindwings. Males patrol shoreline territories from favorite perch tips - a dead twig over the water is prime real estate - returning to the same spot again and again between sorties.

Like all dragonflies, setwings are pure predators twice over: aquatic nymphs ambushing invertebrates and small fish below the surface, and aerial adults hawking mosquitoes, midges, and other soft-bodied insects above it.

The Swift Setwing is a southern species that has been expanding its range northward in recent decades, and in Texas it is a common and welcome sight around farm ponds, resacas, and lake coves through the hot months - a little piece of pest control that poses beautifully.