Black Pennant
(Selysiothemis nigra)

The Black Pennant wasn't known to occur here in Tuscany until we found and photographed it in July 2005. It's a very small dragonfly with a disproportionately large head. Selysiothemis nigra is a rare species in Europe with a very patchy distribution in Greece, the Balkans, Italy and Iberia. Mature males are uniformly black in colour, although they do develop a whitish pruinescence on their thorax and abdomen. Immature males and females have a sandy-brown thorax and abdomen with extensive black markings. The species' most distinguishing features are the size of the wings (they're very large and broad for such a small dragonfly) and the shape of the pterostigma, which resembles an equals sign.

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