Kleine Zangenlibelle
(Onychogomphus forcipatus)

The Small Pincertail is indeed marginally smaller than its stable mate the Large Pincertail (Onychogomphus uncatus). More importantly, though, Onychogomphus forcipatus is very much the more common and widespread species of the two. Its range extends from Southern Scandinavia all the way down to the Mediterranean, although the species is absent from the British Isles. At any type of running water here in Italy it's quite common to see a male Small Pincertail perched on a rock in the so-called obelisk position. The species' most distinguishing features include its grey-to-green eyes (as opposed to O. uncatus' blue eyes), and the relatively narrow, wavy black stripes on the side of the thorax, the first of which meets up with the dark dorsal stripe.

For an overview of the Small Pincertail'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).

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