Spectacled Skimmer (Orthetrum icteromelas)

Spectacled Skimmer, Orthetrum icteromelas, Brilskepper

102 504 2016 03 19 Waterberge spectackle mannetjie r

Old Male

100 534 Orthetrum icteromelas Spectacled Skimmer Not Mature Male Hertzogberg MP RSA Nov 2017r 1

Young Male

102 505 2016 03 19 Waterberge spectackle wyfie 1r

Female

Short Description:

Spectacled Skimmer, Orthetrum icteromelas, Brilskepper is medium size and fairly slender. All evenly pruinescent blue. The females and immature males have distinctive black and yellow markings on the abdomen. The frons (varying from yellow in the young to light blue in the old) has spectacled shaped black marking, giving this species its name.

Family Libellulidae Leach, 1815

More Images:

100 1102 Banga Neck Kosi Bay KZN RSA Mch 2017r 4

Secondary Genitalia

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Key identification features:

Male:

Length 39 - 44- 45mm; wingspan 58 - 61 - 64 mm
Face mostly grey. Labium cream with median dark brown line. Labrum cream with central grey area, blackish spearhead marking middle. Anteclypeus, postclypeus and frons light greyish blue, edged with fine black lines. Frontal shields ringed with black, like spectacles (these absent if young) .
Head strongly grooved, without peaks, black above. Eye margin black with black and yellow marked occipit
Eyes dark turquoise.
Thorax pruinescent greyish blue, with darker shoulder stripe which can become obscured with pruinescence.
Wings are clear to slightly smokey. Pterostigmas are very long and narrow (usually 3 mm or longer, 10% of hindwing length or more), light yellowish brown, with a dark brown anterior margins
Light green stripe between wings
Abdomen is slender and same greyish blue as thorax, as long as hindwing or longer. When not pruinose, pale markings on S 4-6 form longitudinal streaks closer to lateral than dorsal carinae (hour glass shaped)

Females:

Females and immature males similar
Slender, light yellowish brown and dark brown.
Face light brown.
Eyes greenish brown above light green below. Eye margin black with a spectacled shaped pattern occipit. Spectacle rim black with yellow spots inside
Thorax strongly striped, almost gomphid-like.
Abdomen with wide, dark stripe above. Segments 1 to 3 bulbous, with central, long dark stripe in side view. Segments 4 to 8 dark brown with long yellow side dashes. Segment 9 mostly dark brown, segment 10 yellow above. Foliations present, minute, scarcely noticeable.

Habitat:

Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and further north into Africa.It occurs at shallow flooded pools and the flooded margins of rivers with an abundance of long, emergent grasses.
From 0 to 1800 m above sea level, but mostly below 1500. with an abundance of long, emergent grasses.

Behaviour:

Perches on grasses and reeds in shallow water, often darting out and returning to the same perch. It frequently takes other dragonflies as prey, some being as large as itself

Compared with other species:

Characteristically a medium-sized, all blue, slender Orthetrum species with long pterostigmas and clearly spectacled frons.
It is larger than O. hintzi (Dark-shouldered Skimmer) and, unlike that species, usually perches over water.
The grooved vertex, without peaks, and labrum, with its central blackish spear-shaped dash, are distinctive.

Distribution:

Distribution Map

Political Map

Topographical Map

Distribution Map

Political Map

Topographical Map

South Africa:

Found in the humid part of the southern African region. It does not occur in the arid southwest or at the Cape. From southern KZN,

Africa

Angola; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Côte d'Ivoire; Cameroon; Chad; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinee-Bissau; Kenya; Liberia; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Republic of South Africa; Sierra Leone; South Sudan; Tanzania; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe;