Wandering Glider

About the Wandering Glider

The Wandering Glider is the most widespread dragonfly on Earth -- and possibly the greatest traveler in the insect world. This unassuming golden-amber skimmer rides winds across entire oceans; populations cross the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia in a multi-generation circuit that dwarfs the monarch's, and gliders have turned up on every continent but Antarctica. Its genes are so well mixed that a Texas glider and an Indian one are essentially one global population.

The engine of all this is a life built on rain. Gliders breed in temporary pools -- puddles, ditches, flooded fields -- laying eggs that race to adulthood in a few weeks before the water dries. That is why swarms materialize over Texas after summer storms, gleaning gnats above wet pastures, and why the species follows weather fronts the way surfers follow swell.

Those oversized amber hindwings make it a near-permanent flier that almost never perches -- when this one finally hung up on a stem on July 8, 2023 at a Travis County pond, it earned its page here on the spot.

If a glider ever perches in front of you, shoot first and admire later. You may wait years for the next sit-down.