Editing Dragonfly (section)

=== Color<!-- yes, this IS the British English spelling  Really? The American habit of dropping "u" from aluminium, neighbour, humour etc is well-documented. I'm 99.9% sure colour is considered correct in britenglish -->ation ===
[[File:Big Eyes (8753086631).jpg|thumb|left|[[Iridescent]] [[structural coloration]] in a dragonfly's eyes]]

Many adult dragonflies have brilliant [[iridescent]] or metallic colours produced by [[structural colouration]]<!--both UK and US-->, making them conspicuous in flight. Their overall [[animal coloration|color<!-- yes, this IS the British English spelling -->ation]] is often a combination of yellow, red, brown, and black pigments, with structural colours. Blues are typically created by microstructures in the cuticle that reflect blue light. Greens often combine a structural blue with a yellow pigment. Freshly emerged adults, known as tenerals, are often pale, and obtain their typical colours after a few days.<ref name="Paulson2011">{{cite book |last=Paulson |first=Dennis |title=Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTpjGOiHwNkC&pg=PA29 |year=2011 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4008-3966-7 |pages=29–32}}</ref> Some have their bodies covered with a pale blue, waxy powderiness called pruinosity; it wears off when scraped during mating, leaving darker areas.{{sfn|Powell|1999|page=102}}

[[File:Img 041538 mating anax junius.jpg|thumb|Male green darner, ''[[Anax junius]]'' has noniridescent structural blue; the female (below) lacks the colour.]]

Some dragonflies, such as the green darner, ''[[Anax junius]]'', have a noniridescent blue that is produced structurally by scatter from arrays of tiny spheres in the [[endoplasmic reticulum]] of epidermal cells underneath the cuticle.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Prum |first1=Richard O. |author-link=Richard O. Prum |last2=Cole |first2=Jeff A.|last3=Torres |first3=Rodolfo H. |author3-link= Rodolfo H. Torres |title=Blue integumentary structural colours in dragonflies (Odonata) are not produced by incoherent Tyndall scattering |journal=Journal of Experimental Biology |date=15 October 2004 |volume=207 |issue=22 |pages=3999–4009 |doi=10.1242/jeb.01240 |pmid=15472030|hdl=1808/1601 |s2cid=15900357 |url=https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/1808/1601/1/3999.pdf|doi-access=free |bibcode=2004JExpB.207.3999P }}</ref>

The wings of dragonflies are generally clear, apart from the dark veins and pterostigmata. In the chasers (Libellulidae), however, many genera have areas of colour on the wings: for example, groundlings (''[[Brachythemis]]'') have brown bands on all four wings, while some scarlets (''[[Crocothemis]]'') and dropwings (''[[Trithemis]]'') have bright orange patches at the wing bases. Some aeshnids such as the brown hawker (''[[Aeshna grandis]]'') have translucent, pale yellow wings.{{sfn|Dijkstra|2006|pages=26–35}}

Dragonfly nymphs are usually a well-[[camouflage]]d blend of dull brown, green, and grey.<ref name=Lawlor/>