Lille blåpil (Orthetrum coerulescens) |
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The Keeled Skimmer occurs throughout Europe (with the exception of Northern Scandinavia), but it tends to be rarer and less numerous in the North than in the South. It's a fairly small dragonfly. The male's abdomen is entirely pruinescent blue without yellow patches laterally and without dark final segments (a useful difference to distinguish it from the Black-Tailed Skimmer). The side of his thorax is an unmarked brown (unlike the pruinescent blue thorax of the male Southern Skimmer).
Orthetrum coerulescens females are most easily distinguished from their congeners by their relatively small size, their long and narrow golden pterostigmas and their pale antehumeral stripes.
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