Eastern Spectre
(Caliaeschna microstigma)

The Eastern Spectre (Caliaeschna microstigma) is Europe's smallest aeshnid and is characterised by its short, black pterostigma and the male's boomerang-shaped antehumeral stripes. In terms of its behaviour the species is often likened to the Western Spectre (Boyeria irene); the males of both species tend to fly low and close to the water's edge, inspecting every nook and cranny for (ovipositing) females. Other similarities include their dislike of bright sunshine, their seemingly inexhaustible appetite for flight and their extreme skittishness when they do rest. In twelve days' worth of trying we managed to photograph all of four animals at rest (and that included a freshly emerged male), despite the fact that the species was present in good numbers of up to some 50 individuals. Caliaeschna microstigma's main European base is in Greece and its islands (e.g. Lesbos, Corfu and Lefkada). [Update: During a recent field trip to Greece we did manage to make some better photographs of this species; see below.]

For an overview of the Eastern Spectre'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).
Legend: Red = Occurs, White = Doesn't occur; Purple = Extinct; Yellow = Vagrant.

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