Twister (Tholymis tillarga)

Twister, Tholymis tillarga, Vlegtertjie

Short description:

Twister, Tholymis tillarga is fairly large sized, light orange red with dark brown and light blueish white patches near center of wing.

Also called Old World Twister, Coral-tailed Cloud Wing, Crepuscular Darter, Evening Skimmer, Foggy-winged Twister

Family Libellulidae (Leach, 815)

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Male
Young

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Key identification features:

Male:

Easily recognizable species due to the brown and light blueish splashes in both front and hind wings
Brown patches ends at the nodus and the light blueish white patches start at the nodus
Light blue patches are very visible in flight

Females

Pale brown with light brown patches in hindwing

Distribution and habitat:

Very ubiquitous and opportunistic, and breeds in pools, ponds, marshes on sides of large lakes, and swamps in bush, woodland and forest, as well as in river backwaters and man-made sewage lagoons, pools, ponds and water tanks.
From 0 to 1800 m above sea level, but mostly below 1500

Behaviour:

Adults are active at dusk, night and dawn, sometimes on sultry afternoons, as well as during soft rainfall with low luminosity, and so they are expected to be easily overlooked during the day
Hawks low and rapidly over water surface, often turning abruptly
Name is derived from the female behaviour when laying eggs, spinning through 180° between dips
Sometimes overseen due to its crepuscular behaviour (active primarily during the periods of dawn and dusk)

Compared with other species:

Wing patches makes it easily identifiable. Unmistakable colouring very diagnostic.
There are several red coloured species that needs close inspection to identify correctly.
- Aethriamanta rezia, Pygmy Basker: Very small. Eyes brown with red cap on top, mottled grey below. Thorax with black shoulder stripe. Legs black. Wings all with small dark brown flares at the base, hind wings with additional small patch just behind flares, flares are surrounded by amber halo. 6 Ax veins. Pterostigmas reddish brown 2mm. Abdomen wide, bright red with regular black ladder running along entire top. Segment 1 blackish. Superior appendages red.
- Urothemis assignata, Red Basker: Stout, bright red. Eyes deep red above, mottled dark and light grey below. Legs light red. Hind wings have large dark red angular basal patches with amber hallow. Fore wing has small traces of amber at the base. Wing veins red. Pterostigma yellow brown 4mm. Last Ax vein complete. Abdomen segments 5 -9 have black above with median ladder-like stripe of uneven width, widest on s 8 - 9. Appendages of moderate length, red.
- Macrodiplax cora. Coastal Pennant: Wings clear, except for small amber patch at base of hind wings. Abdomen bright red with along top strongly contrasting black hour glass shaped stripe of varying width, broken at each segment joint.
- Tramea basilaris, Keyhole Glider, Hind wing patches distinctive keyhole shaped. Thorax dull orange above dark brownish grey with dark brown areas along the side. Abdomen segment 8 triangular shaped mark, S 9 -10 black above. Superior appendages long, dark brown with light base.
- Tramea limbata, Ferrugginous Glider, Hind wing patches distinctive elongated, narrow shaped dark panels close to basel edge of the wing that may appear black in flight. long brown claspers
- Tholymis tillarga, Twister. Hind wings with dark brown patch just inside nodus in front half, with white patch outside of it and diffuse amber area inside it. Forewings with diffuse amber area at bases of wings. Abdomen tapered, light red. Appendages long, red, black at tips.

Distribution

South Africa:

Sparsely populated in the in the NWP, LP, GP, Mp and KZN Some records fron the central dry areas

Africa:

Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Côte d'Ivoire; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo-Brazzaville; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Equatorial Guinea; Ethiopia; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinee-Bissau; Kenya; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; Republic of Guinea; Republic of South Africa; São Tomé & Príncipe; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Sudan; Tanzania; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe