Why are dragonflies different colors?

My guess would be that the colorations aren’t camouflage, but a mating signal.

Members of individual species are the same colors, but different species come in different colors. As @bpeoples suggested, it seems to be a trait used in sexual selection.

Dragonflies aren’t very concerned with camouflage for a couple of reasons.

First, their environment isn’t suited to camouflage. They spend much of their time hunting out over the surface of the water, where they would be conspicuous no matter what their coloration.

Second, they are extremely fast and agile (the fastest of all insects), and can out-maneuver most birds. They have more to fear from spider webs.

Third, in many species of dragonfly, bright coloration is a form of aposematism, the use of bright coloration to warn predators of nasty taste.

Huh. Very interesting. I wonder what, specifically decides the color.. because some are just plain old black ones.. do they taste better? xD

That is interesting about dragonflies, which can either be mating or camouflage, (I’m not sure about that particular insect) but did you know that spiders within the same family can be different colors? that is why you can’t identify a spider simply by looking at it, unless it is something very distinctly marked, like a Black Widow. So when someone points at a brown spider and assumes it is a Brown Recluse, odds are they are wrong. The only way to truly tell the exact species of a spider is to know its range and to examine its sexual parts and/or spinnerettes under a microscope. Even my Hissers vary in color, and it is due mostly to their diet. Feeding them certain foods and molds can alter their colors in quite a broad range.

Great Question by the way.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Hissers eh? Had to google that one… some kind of tarantula is it?

Funny how I used to wonder how anyone could ever be interested in entomology and the like.. I can see how such creatures could be very interesting indeed.

@NaturalMineralWater Hissers is short for Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. They look like this.

I think the better question to ask is “Why are you differnt colors”?

@trogdor_87 “You” as in who?

@evelyns_pet_zebra Ahh yes.. those little dudes. Kewl.