Leucorrhinia caudalis (Lilypad Whiteface)

There are a few scattered populations in France and happily I knew one location in La Brenne that supposedly supported these delightful little Whitefaces. I had been to the site once but they weren’t around. Happily, in 2018 on a second visit, I found them.

It’s quite common for a damselfly to alight on lilypads and other floating leaves but it’s not common for a dragonfly to do it. This species appears to be aptly named, though my French specimens were not actually on a lilypad.

I was led to more, together with the rest of the five European Whiteface species, in the Netherlands in 2024. Most of those were using lilypads to rest on.

Id Notes

• white pterostigmas
• white anal appendages
• white frons (of course)
• brown patches at hind-wing roots
• clubbed abdomen
• ♂ – S3-5 pruinose, S7-10 black
• ♀ – yellow and black abdomen (though I haven’t seen one)

male