Calopteryx xanthostoma

• Scientific name: Calopteryx xanthostoma (Charpentier, 1825)
• English name: Western Demoiselle
• German name: Westliche Prachtlibelle
• French name: Caloptéryx occitan
• Dutch name: Iberische beekjuffer
• Swedish name: N/A
• Norwegian name: N/A
• Finnish name: N/A
• Danish name: N/A
• Italian name: Splendente ligure
• Czech name: N/A
• Slovenian name: N/A
• Bulgarian name: N/A
• Typical length: 45-50 mm
• Hindwing: 27-29 mm

Calopteryx xanthostoma

Map data based on J.-P. Boudot & V. J. Kalkman (eds.),
Atlas of the European Dragonflies and Damselflies

In terms of its looks, size and behaviour the Western Demoiselle is very similar indeed to the Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). But its distribution is much more limited; it occurs only in Iberia, the South of France and a thin coastal strip of North-West Italy. And Calopteryx xanthostoma does have two distinguishing features which more or less reliably set it apart from splendens: the male's wings (which are completely translucent at emergence) are clear from the base to the node and dark from the node all the way through to the tip (by contrast, the Banded Demoiselle has translucent wing tips), and the female's last three abdominal segments are typically dull brown in colour rather than metallic green, as in splendens. Most of the photographs below were made during a 2017 field trip to the Extremadura region of Spain.