David Element's Wildlife Web Page Dragonflies and Damselflies 32

David Element

Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images

___________________________________________________Dragonflies and Damselflies 32 - Scarlet Darters

SCARLET DARTER DRAGONFLY Crocothemis erythraea (m)

These photographs of mature male Scarlet Darter Dragonflies (or Broad Scarlets) Crocothemis erythraea were taken in Tuscany (Toscana), Italy and in the Petit Camargue, France, where this strikingly coloured dragonfly is common. If the British climate continues to warm up this species is a candidate for possible future colonisation. These photographs were taken in the Dordogne and in southern France. The dragonflies are generally very active in warm weather and quite difficult to approach. The females and teneral males are much more subdued in colour than their fully adult male counterparts and therefore harder to find. The legs are orange without any black markings and this feature and the broad abdomen should enable observers to identify this species relatively easily when making a comparison with the other predominantly red darter dragonflies.

Short films of Scarlet Darter Dragonflies may be seen at: https://youtu.be/7EaaHIpP1mo and https://youtu.be/4NoUQbgN3E0.