Cordulégastre bidenté
(Cordulegaster bidentata)

One of seven European Goldenring species, the Sombre Goldenring is typically darker, a bit smaller and definitely rarer than the more common Cordulegaster boltonii. Cordulegaster bidentata is a Central and Southern European species with a patchy distribution as far South as Italy and Greece. Unlike its congeners Cordulegaster boltonii and C. trinacriae, C. bidentata is a very difficult species to photograph; it seems to be always on the move and only twice have we ever managed to photograph a male at rest. Update: As of July 2009, this situation has very much improved and we now have some wonderful of the species on display (see below). Its main distinguishing features include the black (rather than yellow) occipital triangle, and the absence of the narrower golden rings on S5-S8. In all Goldenring species, the female lays her eggs by dipping her abdomen repeatedly in wet mud (or moss, etc.) in a pneumatic drill fashion.

For an overview of the Sombre Goldenring'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).
Legend: Red = Occurs, White = Doesn't occur; Purple = Extinct; Yellow = Vagrant.

Hover your mouse pointer over a thumbnail below to display a larger version of it. Or click on a thumbnail to display the photograph (at 1050 x 700 pixels) in a new window. And then, if you'd like to get even closer, you can drag the ZoomBox from the top-left corner of that window across the photograph. Note that you may have to refresh the window manually (by pressing F5 on your keyboard) for the ZoomBox to display correctly.