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 coastal 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 (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 most of our photographs of this species during a field trip to the Ardèche in the South of France.

For an overview of the Western Demoiselle'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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