David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital
Video Images
________________________________________________Dragonflies
and Damselflies 61 – White-tailed Skimmers
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED
SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
WHITE-TAILED SKIMMER DRAGONFLY Orthetrum albistylum (m)
·
The
above photographs of a male White-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly Orthetrum albistylum
were taken in the Vendée,
France, where this insect is one of several similar dragonflies belonging to
the same genus in which blue pruinescence develops in
mature males. Confusion is most likely with the Black-tailed Skimmer O. cancellatum, but the profile of O. albistylum is slimmer and the black area at the tip of
the slightly longer abdomen is more extensive (four abdominal segments). The
photographer has yet to see a fully intact member of this species, and in this
example the right forewing had certainly seen better days! Thankfully this damage isn’t obvious
in the photographs illustrating the left profile! The dragonfly’s white anal
appendages are sometimes black. Perhaps ‘White-tipped Skimmer’ would have been
a more appropriate vernacular name.
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