Anax ephippiger

The Vagrant Emperor is essentially an African/Asian species which occasionally ventures into Europe. Its presence in Europe tends to be concentrated in the Mediterranean but it has been seen as far North as Iceland. Anax ephippiger is a fairly large dragonfly whose eyes, thorax and abdomen are predominantly brown. The only distinguishing feature to break this brown 'monotony' is the so-called saddle on S2. In mature males this saddle is a bright light blue; in immature males and females it's a pale violet. Nearly all our photographs of this species to date are of young animals, demonstrating its reproduction at this Italian site.

Click a thumbnail to display a larger version (1050 x 700 pixels) of each picture. And then, if you'd like to get even closer, you can drag the ZoomBox from the top-left corner across the photograph.

Please note: you may have to refresh the photo window manually (by pressing F5 on your keyboard) for the ZoomBox to display correctly.