Here are some skimmers and sympetrums. Thanks for looking, I hope you can identify these. Sardinia June 2018
Red-veined should have an obvious blue, lower half to the eyes.
It also has yellow tibia so Common Darter IMO?
A
I was never happy with picture 1 being O. coerulescens and went through the pictures again. I found this one which shows the side of the thorax. This for me was quite a puzzle as it looks nothing like any other Orthetrum illustrated in Dijkstra. A continental friend pointed me in the right direction; it is O. brunneum! The site actually held O coerulescens, cancellatum and brunneum. Sorry for not providing this picture before, but perhaps I am not the only one to learn from this.
Thanks again Paul. My example is a male. Interesting stuff!
We are having to wait a long time for the 2nd edition of Dijkstra, do you know if its coming soon? Two books, a paperback for the field and a heavy augmented edition for the desk would be ideal!
My example is a male.
We are having to wait a long time for the 2nd edition of Dijkstra, do you know if its coming soon? Two books, a paperback for the field and a heavy augmented edition for the desk would be ideal!
I was never happy with picture 1 being O. coerulescens and went through the pictures again. I found this one which shows the side of the thorax. This for me was quite a puzzle as it looks nothing like any other Orthetrum illustrated in Dijkstra. A continental friend pointed me in the right direction; it is O. brunneum! The site actually held O coerulescens, cancellatum and brunneum. Sorry for not providing this picture before, but perhaps I am not the only one to learn from this.
From my experience in Italy, the wing venation is the best separating characteristic between coerulescens and brunneum. Brunneum has a row of double cells below the Rspl (radial supplemental vein) while coerulescens has only the occasional doubled cell. You an see this on your first picture on the right forewing quite easily. Brunneum full males generally a more powdery baby blue than the purply blue (even on the thorax) of coerulescens towards the south of their range.
O
From my experience in Italy, the wing venation is the best separating characteristic between coerulescens and brunneum. Brunneum has a row of double cells below the Rspl (radial supplemental vein) while coerulescens has only the occasional doubled cell. You an see this on your first picture on the right forewing quite easily. Brunneum full males generally a more powdery baby blue than the purply blue (even on the thorax) of coerulescens towards the south of their range.
O