About Aeshna subarctica Walker, 1908
Aeshna subarctica, commonly known as the subarctic darner or bog hawker, is a dragonfly species in the family Aeshnidae, which includes darners and hawkers. This holarctic species is distributed across Europe, Northern Asia (excluding China), and North America. It has a holarctic overall distribution, with two recognized subspecies. The nominate subspecies occurs in Alaska and Canada, ranging south into the United States as far as Oregon, Montana, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. The Eurasian subspecies is found across northern Europe and Asia, from most of Fennoscandia east to the Bering Strait. It also occurs in the Baltic states, Poland, northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. South of the species' main continuous range, Aeshna subarctica can be found in the higher mountains of Europe. This species is difficult to distinguish from the sympatric common hawker A. juncea, which may lead to under-recording of Aeshna subarctica. In Europe, bog hawkers have been recorded as far south as the Italian Alps and the Romanian Carpathians. The bog hawker is limited to acidic moors and Sphagnum peat bogs that contain naturally flooded depressions or peat diggings. It favors habitats that include floating sphagnum moss, a habitat type called "sphagnum soup" that is used by the species' larvae. In the northern part of its range, this is a lowland species, while in the southern part of its range it is restricted to mountains, mostly found at altitudes greater than 700 m (2,300 ft).
