Blue Chaser
(Libellula fulva)

Compared to the commoner and more widespread Broad-Bodied Chaser, the Blue Chaser has a more restricted range; it's largely absent from Scandinavia, the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. It also tends to be much the rarer of the two. In our part of Central Italy, though, it's still quite common and in fact - because of its highly territorial nature - it's one of the easiest species to photograph. Libellula fulva is a fairly large dragonfly. Its main distinguishing features include the male's steely-blue eyes, light-blue abdomen and dark abdominal segments 8-10. The females and immature males are of a strikingly beautiful orange colour, which - with age - changes into light blue in the case of males and brown in the case of females. The species has a dark-brown wing patch (but only on the hind wing) and a dark patch on the tip of each wing.

For an overview of the Blue Chaser'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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