Rustic Presba (Syncordulia serendipator)

Rustic Presba, Syncordulia serendipator, Rustieke Swalker is large sized, stout,is large, stout,dark brown and spotted yellow

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Male:

Face all yellowish brown.
Eyes dark grey with brownish hue.
Thorax glossy, almost entirely brownish black with some paler areas and spots, fine yellow line runs along top up to wing bases, covered with long whitish hairs.
Wings clear with black venation,slightly smoky at bases. Pterostigmas black,2.9 mm long.
Abdomen stout, very dark blackish brown with paired light orange and squarish spots at end of all but the last two segments. Pale markings on S3-8 concentrated apically on segments. Segment 9 virtually all black, segment 10 with central square yellowish spot. Appendages very robust, dark brown. Cerci stout, less than 3x as long as S10, robustly angled ventrally near base and laterally near apex. Epiproct divide into two branches or forks

Female:

Similar to male,
Overall more robust
Pale markings slightly larger
Eyes browner,wings slightly darker with yellowish bases.
Lobes of female’s vulvar scale less than half as long as the distance between their bases.

Prefer streams, but possibly also rivers, shaded by gallery forest, but sometimes in open landscapes. Often calmer sections (like pools) with rocks and probably submerged roots and/or coarse detritus
Inferred to occur from 100 to 800 m above sea level.

Very powerful flyer, hawking swiftly over pools, leaving abruptly to fly across montane slopes. It even flies up to mountain peaks.

S. venator (Mahogany Presba) is very a distinctive reddish brown, yellow-spotted species, which is much redder overall than Syncordulia gracilis (Yellow Presba) and S. legator (Gilded Presba) both of which are essentially yellowish.
S. venator does not have the distinctive yellow stripes on side of thorax as does S. gracilis.
S. venator is similar to S. serendipator (Rustic Presba), both in overall colour and size.
S. venator abdominal spots are 'hoof' shaped and pale yellow when viewed from above, whereas they are more solid and orangyish in S. serendipator.
S. venator also has a fine, widening line along the mid-line of the thorax, barely present in S. serendipator.
Full credit for this comparison to Michael J Samways.

South Africa:

Endemic to South Africa
Very scarce,with only a few scattered records from the Western Cape mountains, including Riebeeck Kasteel,Bainskloof and Jonkershoek, above 350 melevation.