Black-Tailed Skimmer
(Orthetrum cancellatum)

The Black-Tailed Skimmer is one of Europe's most widespread species, absent only from Northern Scandinavia. It's a fairly large dragonfly. With age, adult males develop extensive blue pruinescence on their abdomen, which is offset by yellow lateral patches. The females and immature males are a beautiful deep yellow colour and have wavy black lines dorsally on their abdomen. Orthetrum cancellatum is very similar to its much more localized congener the White-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 stocky build and intense colours) is the dark colour of the male's S8-10 and appendages and of the female's appendages.

For an overview of the Black-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.

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