Thanks for the ID help. Is the Little Blue Dragonlet really only 1 inch in size? If so, I'm confused because I don't believe this one was even close to 1 inch... If that's the case I'll go back to the field and see if I can find another one... As an aside, how does one differentiate the female Little Blue Dragonlet from an immature male? The pictures on BugGuide look like the picture of the female in Stokes beginner's guide.

thanks!

Not sure about size, because I haven't measured the few that I found. 1 inch might sound like a medium-sized bug but it is REALLY tiny for a dragon - there are only a handful of species with body length shorter than that. As for females vs. males, it is important to realize that in most Libellulid species (the family to which this insect belongs), the coloration of the newly hatched males is nearly identical to the females, only later developing into the mature form you see in most guides. The sure way to tell the difference is to compare the size and shape of the terminal appendages or to look for the presence or absence of a genital bulge under the basal abdominal segments.