Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda 
Class: Insecta        
Order: Odonata                  
Family: Aeshnidae
Genus: Aeshna
Species: Aeshna sitchensis
Common Name: Zigzag Darner
 
 All taxonomy information is from BugGuide
                                                                                            

Kingdom: Animalia (Animalia- animal)                                                                                       
     The ZigZag Darner is a part of the Animal Kingdom, because it has a few distinct characteristics. It has complex eukaryotic cells, reproduces sexually, acquires ATP for energy, and has specific tissue specializations that they require for daily survival (i.e. eyes, mouth, wings, etc). It is also heterotrophic (Hudecki).

Phylum: Arthropoda (Arthro-jointed appendages, pod-foot)
     The Aeshna sitchensis is included in the Arthropoda phylum, because all members of this phylum have jointed legs. They also possess segmented bodies, which is another indication. Lastly, they have to molt to grow, because they have exoskeletons (Marshall, Stephen 14-15).

Class: Insecta (Insecta-Insects)
     The Zigzag Darner is in the Insecta class, because they have the same characteristics as many other insects. They have two pairs of wings, a body divided into three segments (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of legs, and one pair of antennae and one pair of compound eyes (Entomology Department). 

Order: Odonata (Odonata- toothed jaw)
     The Zigzag Darner is also a part of the Odonata order. This is because the order includes dragonflies and damselflies. The ZigZag Darnier is considered a dragonfly. It also matches some features of the order. Some examples are that they have extremely large eyes, a long, skinny abdomen, and two pairs of transparent membranous wings ("Odonata" 814-817).

Family: Aeschnidae
     The Zigzag Darner is in the Aeschnidae family, because they have similar body colors. For the male, they exhibit shades of dark blue on their bodies. For the female, they exhibit green and yellow (picture above). Also something interesting is that in this specie's family, the male's eyes turn from green to blue. For the females, their eyes change from green to brown (Marshall, Stephen 34).

Genus: Aeshna
     The Aeshna sitchensis is a part of the Aeshna genus, because of their complicated patterns of colors, again. They are known to have patterns of blue with some of stripes along their abdomen. Females are known to having yellowish-green bodies with possibilities of having stripes also ("Aeshna").

Species: Aeshna sitchensis (ZigZag Darner)
    The meaning of Aeshna sitchensis is where its type locality is (origin first found), which was in Sitka, Alaska. The translation of ZigZag Darner is the description of the thoracic stripes on their bodies. They are in a zigzag pattern running along down its back (Dunkle and Paulson 30).

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