Desert Darter
(Sympetrum sinaiticum)

The Desert Darter's presence is Europe is restricted to a few coastal areas in Southern and Eastern Spain. The species is at home in the arid regions of North-Africa and the Middle-East. Sympetrum sinaiticum is about the same size as S. striolatum but is much paler in its coloration. The species' most distinguishing feature, which both sexes share and which makes it easily distinguishable from a similarly pale species like S. meridionale, is a line of black bars on the side of abdominal segments 2 and 3. We photographed the species in the desert oases of Central Tunisia, where it occurred in good numbers.

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.