Calopteryx xanthostoma

In terms of its looks, size and behaviour the Western Demoiselle is very similar indeed to the Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens). But its distribution is much more limited; it occurs only in Iberia, the South of France and a thin costal strip of North-West Italy. And Calopteryx xanthostoma does have two distinguishing features which more or less reliably set it apart from splendens: the male's wings (which are completely translucent at emergence) are clear from the base to the node and dark from the node all the way through to the tip of the apex (by contrast, the Banded Demoiselle has translucent wing tips), and the female's last three abdominal segments are typically dull brown in colour rather than metallic green, as in splendens. We made our photographs of this species during a field trip to the Ardèche in the South of France.

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