Sunday 1 July 2018

Milton Creek on the 1st of July


This is a male Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum, which can sometimes be a little tricky to distinguish from the other skimmers and chasers in the genus Libellula and Orthetrum respectively, the family Libellulids.

Clues you might pick up on are the dark pointed tip to the abdomen, the lack of ante-humeral stripes on the very brown thorax, the lack of any blackish wing-bases, the yellowish costa on both wings, the black tip spot on the wing tips, and the green-blue eyes (from above). A characteristic "path-rester", often found sunbathing on bare soil, but in this case seen perched on vegetation by the fishing pond.