Calico Pennants
Calico Pennants (Celithemis elisa) are great little dragonflies that are fairly common across the eastern United States and far southeastern Canada. They breeed in ponds and marshes with dense emergent vegetation, but usually take off for different pastures once emerging as adults. They are always a welcome site in my back field in early summer. There are some farm ponds nearby, but the most suitable breeding habitat is about half a kilometer away.
But here's the question at hand. Two of the Calico Pennants pictured here are male and one is female. Which one is the female?
The bottom one is the female. Note that she has stubby little tufts at the end of her abdomen. The mature male on top (red coloration) and the immature male in the middle (yellow coloration) both have longer pincer-like clasping appendages that are used to grab the female during mating.
In many animals, immature males can superficially look like females and over-mature females can start to look like males. Sometimes you have to just closely look at more than color.
Calico Pennant at