White-Tailed Skimmer
(Orthetrum albistylum)

The White-Tailed Skimmer is a fairly large dragonfly with a patchy distribution in Central and Eastern Europe, but where it occurs it can do so in massive numbers. As a case in point, the rice fields of Northern Italy hold huge populations of the species. Orthetrum albistylum is very similar to its much more widespread congener the Black-Tailed Skimmer, and yet it's sufficiently different to allow easy identification in the field; the species' main distinguishing feature (apart from its slightly more slender build and slightly less intense colours) is the white colour of the male's appendages and of the female's S10 and appendages.

For an overview of the White-Tailed Skimmer'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.

Hover your mouse pointer over a thumbnail below to display a larger version of it. Or click on a thumbnail to display the photograph (at 1050 x 700 pixels) in a new window. And then, if you'd like to get even closer, you can drag the ZoomBox from the top-left corner of that window across the photograph. Note that you may have to refresh the window manually (by pressing F5 on your keyboard) for the ZoomBox to display correctly.