Vagrant Emperor
(Anax ephippiger)

The Vagrant Emperor is essentially an African/Asian species which occasionally ventures into Europe. Its presence in Europe tends to be concentrated in the Mediterranean but it has been seen as far North as Iceland. Anax ephippiger is a fairly large dragonfly whose eyes, thorax and abdomen are predominantly brown. The only distinguishing feature to break this brown 'monotony' is the so-called saddle on S2. In mature males this saddle is a bright light blue; in immature males and females it's a pale violet. Nearly all our photographs of this species to date are of young animals, demonstrating its reproduction at this Italian site. After copulation the pair stays together and the female oviposits in tandem.

For an overview of the Vagrant Emperor's distribution in Europe, hover your mouse pointer over the map symbol .
With the authors' permission we have based this map on data published in Kalkman et al. (2010).

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