White Featherleg
(Platycnemis latipes)

The third in the trio of European Featherlegs, Platycnemis latipes is endemic to the South-West of France and Iberia. It's similar in size to its sibling species P. pennipes and P. acutipennis. The White Featherleg's most distinguishing feature is the width of the male's shins; his hind legs especially have very wide and very white tibiae which he flashes during flight, presumably to impress females and rival males. The females are somewhat nondescript with their white and largely unmarked abdomen. We made our photographs of this species during field trips to the Ardèche in the South of France and to Extremadura in Spain.

For an overview of the White Featherleg'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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