This has the honour of being the very first of my finds in Sri Lanka … and I had no idea what it was at the time. I was very happy to find out later, being new to me, and I was even happier to find a female and an immature male at a subsequent location.
My book on Sri Lankan odonata has the habits of this character exactly right. It says males “perch on vegetation 1-2m high” – my male was. It goes on to say that “females may perch on bare branches several metres high” – spot on again. The immature male was behaving like a female as well as looking like a female.
In 2022 I saw a single, distant example in Australia where it is rather unattractively referred to as Swampwatcher.
Id Notes
- ♂ – develops blue pruinosity over a yellow and black ground
- imm ♂ & ♀ – thorax yellow with black stripes
- wings hyaline
- pterostigmas brown
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| immature male |
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| female |
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