Oasis Bluetail
(Ischnura fountaineae)

The Oasis Bluetail is only considered a European species because it occurs on the small Italian island of Pantelleria, just off the Tunisian coast. Its actual home is in the arid regions of North-Africa and the Middle-East, where it lives in desert oases and near the coast (the species is quite tolerant of high salinity). Ischnura fountaineae is about the same size as I. elegans. The males are invariably blue (even when immature), while the females occur in a number of colour forms, the most striking perhaps being the vivid orange form aurantiaca. Other forms are yellow, light brown, or brownish green. The final, so-called andromorph form looks very much like the male and during a recent field trip in Tunisia appeared to be fairly common. Females may or may not have a (blue) tail light on S8.

For an overview of the Oasis Bluetail'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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