Variable Sprite, Pseudagrion sjoestedti, Verneukertjie.

100 3382 Pseudagrion sjoestedti Variable Sprite Male Marken LP RSA Mch 2021r2 of 4

100 3387 Pseudagrion sjoestedti Variable Sprite Male Swadini LP RSA May 2021r 7

100 3384 Pseudagrion sjoestedti Variable Sprite Male Swadini LP RSA May 2021r 2

Short Description:

 Variable Sprite, Pseudagrion sjoestedti, Verneukertjie.is a small sized brick red species.

Family Coenagrionidae

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100 3388 Pseudagrion sjoestedti Variable Sprite Male Swadini LP RSA May 2021r 11Image Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Key identification features:

Male

  • This species occurs, as various colour morphs.
  • Face usually reddish, sometimes yellow and head above brick red with some black tracery. Narrow black bar across top of head forms border of large reddish postocular spots, which are linked by pale brown bar. Neck black with brick red spots.
  • Thorax brick red with fine blackish stripes above, greyish green with dusting of pruinescence below.
  • Legs at least tibiae pale, contrasting with femora when these are dark
  • Wings clear. Pterostigmas brick red.
  • Abdomen slender, blackish with slight bronze sheen, greenish below. Segments 1 and 2 pruinescent. Segments 8 and 9 black with bright blue rings. Segment 10 black.

Female

  • Female greenish brown with black stripes.
Compared with other species:
  • P. shoestedti and Pseudagrion massaicum. Massai Sprite similar
Habitat:

It occurs at pools under trees on the edge of rocky savanna rivers

Behaviour:
  • It perches on reeds in sun flecks over the water in slow flowing areas of the stream.
Distribution

Pseudagrion sjoestedti Variable Sprite Distribution Map July 2020x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Africa

  • Until recently only seen in the the south eastern corner of the Kruger National Park. Now seen in the low areas of the Limpopo river valley and Mpumalanga

Africa

  •  Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Côte d'Ivoire; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinee-Bissau; Kenya; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; Republic of South Africa; Rwanda; Sierra Leone; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Further reading:

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