Odonata ID confirmation needed - Düsseldorf, Germany (1 Viewer)

[David_]

Hi,

once more I am asking for confirmation for some IDs. All pictures taken two days ago in Düsseldor, Germany.

Is this a Scarlet dragonfly? Couldn‘t get photos from another angle as it was only landing at the side of the trail for a few moments before it flew away and did not return (luckily I had the camera ready when it appeared). I can‘t see any black, so it is a Scarlet?


Moustached darter? Could not move around the dragonfly to shoot from another angle. My ID is based on vulgar scale and the black around the frons


Last one I am pretty sure is a female banded demoiselle only thing which makes me a bit unsure about the ID is the missing white pseudopterostigma. Also there were some banded demoiselle males showing territorial behavior a bit further down the ditch.

Thank You!

 

[pdwinter]

Yes - the red one is a male Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea). The yellow is a young female Scarlet Darter. Agree on the female Banded - the pseudopterostigmas don't always show well.

 

[David_]

Yes - the red one is a male Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea). The yellow is a young female Scarlet Darter. Agree on the female Banded - the pseudopterostigmas don't always show well.

Thank you. Do you mind to help Me what features make the yellow one a Scarlet Darter? After looking at it again I think I see the amber patch on the wing base and the color of the pterostigma matches Scarlet Darter better than Moustached. Anything else that I missed?

 

[pdwinter]

I took your image of the young female Crocothemis and put some ID pointers on it. A good starter for determining is you have a darter (Sympetrum sp) or a similar looking / sized Libellulid is to look at how dense the venation is off the leading edge (costa) of the wing. Sympetrum sp usually have 6 1/2 Ax (antenodal crossveins - the veins running between the costa and the subcosta between the wingbase and the node). I can see your individual has more than that - most of my Crocothemis pics show 10ish Ax. I think the other id pointers are self-explanatory from the annotations (but I would as I wrote them!)

 

[David_]

Thank you, that helps a lot

 

[pdwinter]

I looked up in the European Atlas and I think the only other species of dragonfly in Germany which has red over blue eyes is Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) - an immature male at distance might be confused with an immature male / young female of Crocothemis.