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These dragonflies are everywhere, and their eyes are very reflective, like a mirror. How does one tell dragonfly families apart as adults, as in Libellulidae and Aeshnidae? I can do so with the larva, and have seen exhuvia of both families, but I’ve never had any practice with adults.
Aeshnidae are generally larger, with abdomen “long and slender beyond the base, like darning needles”. They have a rounded anal loop on the hind wing, but it is too hard to show where that is with words. Libullulidae are mostly at still water. They are more showy than Aeshnids with more than brown, green and blue. They are seldom metallic. Often they have conspicuous wing patterns. They sometimes have flattened abdomens. They have dark wing spots, and an anal loop looks like a leg with a knee, ankle and foot.