Almindelig hedelibel
(Sympetrum vulgatum)

The Moustached Darter is a very common species in Northern Europe, but it gets progressively rarer further South. In fact, it's virtually absent from Iberia, Italy, the Balkans and Greece. In terms of its shape and size, Sympetrum vulgatum is virtually identical to its more widespread stable mate the Common Darter. The species' main distinguishing features are the male's deep red colour, the reddish hue on the side of the thorax (by contrast, the Common Darter has two yellow patches on the side of its thorax), the black 'tear-drop' which runs down along the inside edge of the eye (and which is absent in S. striolatum), and the female's large vulvar scale, which sits at a 90-degree angle to the abdomen.

For an overview of the Moustached Darter'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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