Yellow-faced Sprite (Pseudagrion citricola)

Yellow-faced Sprite, Pseudagrion citricola, Jaloerse gesie

Male

Young Male

Female

Short Description

Yellow-faced Sprite, Pseudagrion citricola, Jaloerse gesie is small sized, dull dark blue with bright blue postocular spots, bright yellow face and abdomen with sky blue tip

Family Coenagrionidae Kirby, 1890

More Images

Image Gallery

Male

Female Old

Key identification features:

Male:

Face is bright yellow with yellow labrum and clypeus and yellow genae (side of the head) and a black frons. Horn like yellow extensions next to the eye is diagnostic.
Head above is black, with small, bright blue postocular spots with no line between them.
Eyes are above brown with a darker ring and amber yellow below, Light green when young.
Thorax is dark blue above and light greenish blue below - becoming pruinescent with age.
Wings are clear with light brown pterostigmas that becomes dark brown with age.
Abdomen is above dark blue and buff-greenish below. Between segments are dark rings. S7 may have a small patch at the hind margin when young S8-9 has bright mauvish blue patches above and are buff below. S10 is black above. Abdomen pruinose to grey when old

Female:

Buff to greenish face and the eyes are light green below
Postocular spots are buff and joined by light brownish bar.
Thorax can be buff with black humeral (shoulder) stripes.
Abdomen upper side is metallic greenish-black and light greenish buff below. S8 S9 has a typical white pattern. S8 has a rabbit-face pattern and S9 has a whitish crown-shape pattern extending halfway from the posterior end of the segments to the middle of the segments. S10 is whitish above. Abdomen markings creamy brown when young

Habitat

Sluggish streams and rivers, and occasionally dams and pools, with banks with tall grass, emergent vegetation, rushes and herbs. Usually with emergent vegetation and probably often submerged roots.

Behaviour

Rests, often conspicuously, on stems of grass or rushes, where its yellow face is very striking, but only when viewed from the front, not from above. Flits fast across water when disturbed.

Compared with other species:

Differs from the other two South African sprites with yellow faces.
Great Sprite (Pseudagrion gamblesi) is much larger, has a striped thorax, and is restricted to faster-flowing rivers at lower altitudes in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
Springwater Sprite (Pseudagrion caffrum) also has the yellow face and dark blue body but does not have blue postocular spots, and it has brighter rusty red pterostigmas and dull blue abdominal tip.
P. citricola may be confused for Powder-faced Sprite (P. salisburyense) except that P. citricola has the distinctive yellow face.

Habitat:

Sluggish streams and rivers, and occasionally dams and pools, with banks with tall grass, emergent vegetation, rushes and herbs. Usually with emergent vegetation and probably often submerged roots. From 0 to 2000 m above sea level, but mostly above 1200 and possibly up to 2800. In the South African region, occasionally at low elevations in WCP and ECP.

Behaviour:

Rests, often conspicuously, on stems of grass or rushes, where its yellow face is very striking, but only when viewed from the front, not from above. Flits fast across water when disturbed.Females often close to males

Compared with Other Species

Only Pseudagrion caffrum, Springwater Sprite also has yellow face and dark blue body.
P. citricola has bright postocular spots, dull brown pterostigmas and P blue abdominal tip, whereas P. caffrum has no postocular spots, bright rusty red pterostigmas and dull blue abdominal tip.
P. citricola looks very much like P. salisburyense, Slate Sprite, with which it can co-occur, but the yellow face of P. citricola is readily separated from the greenish, dark face of .P. salisburyense