Red Groundling, Brachythemis lacustris, Rooigrondwagtertjie

100 3368 Brachythemis lacustris Red Groundling Female

Short description:

Red Groundling, Brachythemis lacustris , Rooigrondwagtertjie is small sized, stocky, bright red, with a dark brownish red face and eyes and with large orange splashes on wings and broad red abdomen.

Family Libellulidae Leach, 1815

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Female
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Key identification features:

Male:

Face and vertex is darkish red
Dark red eyes above becoming pinkish grey below. Brown bands visible on upper eyes ((diagnostic in Groundlings (Genus Brachythemis))
Thorax is bright red to pinkish red
Wings are all with large, bright orange to dark amber splashes, almost reaching nodus on front wing but reach the nodus on Hind wing. No cell-doublings in radial planate (Rspl loop) of all wings although rarely 1 or 2. Hind wing is small but broad (22 – 25mm). Pterostigmas relatively short, yellowish brown on inside, dark reddish brown on outside, 2.1–2.2 mm long
Abdomen is broad swollen at base that hardly tapers. S1-4 is all bright red; with no dark or black markings. S5-10 has a light black line broadening slightly towards S10. This line may dull with age.

Female

All yellowish and light brown with few distinctive markings
Stouter body,
wings clear, no orange markings.
Pterostigmas yellow with brown on outside

Habitat:

Prefers meandering, partially tree-lined, streams and rivers with rocks and fringed with tall grass.
Found from 0 to 1800 m above sea level, but mostly below 1100.

Behaviour:

Males and females co-habitat
Male may perch in large numbers near the water (sometimes in the shade)

Compared with other species:

Small in size compared with the Orange-winged Dropwing, Trithemis Kirbyi.
Amber patches reach the nodus but on T. Kirbyi it only reaches about halfway to the nodus.
T Kirbyi has a slender abdomen.
T. Kirbyi more orange than the deeper red of B. lacustris.
Both species prefers to perch on rocks but B. lacustris is highly gregarious and many individuals may be found perched alongside each other
T. Kirbyi has red veins in the area of the nodus compared to the black veins if B. lacustris.
Orange in wings of B. lacustris continues intense but it is less intense and not always continuous in T Kirbyi.
Female similar to female Southern Banded Groundling (B. leucosticta) Lateral stripe on abdomen dark brown compared with lightish brown on Red Groundling

Related Species:

Distribution

South Africa:

Mpumalanga, Limpopo and possibly in the northern areas of North West Province. New records indicate presence in the western interior of Mpumalanga on the central Gauteng border.

Africa:

Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Chad; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Ethiopia; Gambia; Ghana; Kenya; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Republic of South Africa; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Sudan; Tanzania; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe;