Banded Duskdarter (Parazyxomma flavicans)

Male

Male Old

Female

Banded Duskdarter, Parazyxomma flavicans, Gebande Skemerwerwerper is medium sized blackish brown, with smudged dark brown wing bands

Family Libellulidae (Leach, 1815)

Males:

Face mostly light brown in front, dark brown above. Labrum dark brown, with light margin especially centrally. Anteclypeus and postclypeus light greenish to yellowish brown, grading into dark, shiny brown, slightly metallic, dimpled above and on vertex.
Eyes above greenish with dark brown stripes and mottles, light grey with brown patches.
Thorax a mosaic of dark greenish brown, separated by blackish lines.
Wings:clear with black veins and distinctive very dark brown band-like smudges on all four wings between nodus and pterostigma. Light patch under base of forewing.
Pterostigma deep yellowish brown, but dark brown in outer sector, 3.2 mm long.
Abdomen smooth, shiny, dark blackish brown above, light brown below. Superior appendages light brown base, black tips. Inferior appendages light brown.

Females:

Standing waters shaded by or in open areas in (gallery) forest, but sometimes in open. Usually with coarse detritus and mostly a soft (like muddy) bottom, and probably often overhanging branches. From 0 to 1500 m above sea level, but mostly below 500
In the southern African region it is highly localised along coastal northern KwaZulu-Natal.Its range extends to West and East Africa and its habitat is coastal swamp forest adjacent to large rivers.

Often perches high up on twigs and branches under the canopy and usually in full shade. Making fast, long and low patrols close along banks at duskI ncreasing activity towards sunset. Females have the habit of laying eggs in flight on plant material close to the water surface.

At first sight very similar to a young Brachythemis leucosticta, Southern Banded Groundling but perches high up in swamp forest, not as B leucosticta does on ground savanna. Also, in life, its striped and in mottled eyes are distinctive. The wing bands are not nearly as large, dense, nor as sharply-defined as in B leucosticta
Pterostigmas are yellowish brown, not yellow as in B leucosticta
Parazyxomma flavicans, Banded Duskdarter is 38-39 mm long, with hindwing 30-31 mm, while B leucosticta is 29-31 mm long, with hindwing 23.5-25 mm.
Body is not so black as B leucosticta
Abdomen is short and thick in comparison with Gynacantha, Duskhawker species
Parazyxomma behaves like Zyxomma, Smokey Duskdarter and Tolythemis, Twisters lurking in vegetation during the day and making fast, long and low patrols close along banks at dusk.

Distribution Map

Political Map

Topographical Map

Distribution Map

Political Map

Physical Map

South Africa:

Africa:

Benin; Botswana; Côte d'Ivoire; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinee-Bissau; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Namibia; Nigeria; Republic of South Africa; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe;

Websites: