Common Threadtail (Elattoneura glauca)

Common Threadtail Elattoneura glauca Gewone Draadstertjie is small sized, slender, and strongly striped in bluish grey and black.

Male:

Face is dark grey with the frons strongly pruinose with maturity. The labrum is blackish. Head is greyish black from above. Neck is a pruinescent greyish blue.
Eyes are blackish brown above, turning turquoise midway, green below; dark ring present midway. Largely blue in life, rather than dark
Thorax is distinctly pruinescent greyish blue from above with a distinctive black stripe on the shoulder. Area between the wing bases with small light brown blotches.
Wings are clear. Pterostigmas dark are brown with fine light brown borders.
Abdomen dark bluish black with fine indistinct buff rings. Segments 1 and 2 pruinescent above, segments 8 to 10 heavily pruinescent greyish white.
Young males similar to females bite brown with white markings on s 7-10

Female:

Slightly larger and more robust than male,
Thorax patterning brown and dark brown with creamy brown stripes Dark version very dark almost blackish brown with creamy white strips
Abdomen with distinct white, browning slightly with age, markings on s 7-10.

Habitat is Mostly streams, but also rivers, shaded by gallery forest, but sometimes in open landscapes. Often with emergent vegetation and a gravelly, sandy and/or soft (like muddy) bottom.
From 0 to 2400 m above sea level, but mostly below 1800.

Reluctant to fly and is most often seen perching on grass stems. flight is slow and hovering, covering just a few centimeters.

Distinguished from Elattoneura frenulata by being bluish grey and not black and is rare in southwestern WCP.
It is smaller and much more slender than any species and the dorsal, wide, greyish blue thoracic stripes give it a 'greybacked' appearance.
Striped Pseudagrion species have wider black stripes than blue when viewed from above.
Appendages distinctive.

Distribution Map
South Africa

Political Map
South Africa

South Africa
Physical Map

Africa
Distribution Map

Africa
Political Map

Africa
Physical Map

South Africa:

Common Threadtail Elattoneura glauca Gewone Draadstertjie is abundant and widespread across much of the country,
There are few records from the Karroo and it is localised and rare on the coast and in the Lowveld.

Africa:

Angola; Botswana; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Kenya; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; Republic of South Africa; Swaziland; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe;