Blue Scarlet Dragonfly - Crocothemis nigrifrons
FAMILY LIBELLULIDAE - Skimmers
- This page contains information and pictures about Blue Scarlet Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Male, body length 45mm
The male Blue Scarlet Dragonfly has black thorax and blue abdomen, with a black line on the back along the top of abdomen. They are one of the most common dragonflies in Brisbane. They can be found on still and slowing running waters.
- In Brisbane there is another blue dragonfly, the Blue Skimmer, with similar colour and size. They can be found at the same place. They can be distinguished by Blue Scarlet has the dark thorax and wider abdomen. In both species the female are in brownish yellow colour. The Blue Scarlet female has the black line at the middle of the boarder abdomen.
- We observed that the Blue Scarlet Dragonflies mating in wheel position only a few seconds, when both female and male are still in air. Then they separate with the male guarding the female for laying eggs. The female dip the tip of her abdomen quickly onto the water surface.
- The above pictures were taken in a very hot day. The dragonfly perches with abdomen pointing towards the sun, to reduce the heat absorbed. Most Skimmers may perch in this way in a very hot day.
- The above pictures show a immature male and an old male. The immature male is yellow brown in colour, same colour as the female. They are sometime found hiding among the vegetations near the waters. He will turn into blue colour and return to its breeding ground when matured, i.e., one or two week later.
- The mature male is powdered blue in colour. In the above second picture, we can tell the dragonfly is old by the wear off of its wings. Notice that the colour of each side of the abdomen is darker. This is due to consequence mating, the blue colour is robbed off by the female when in wheel position. The scratched deep blue colour in the above picture indicated that the male dragonfly has mated many times.
- We noticed that the Blue Scarlet females can be in two colour forms when matured, either yellow brown or blue like the male.
- Blue Scarlet Dragonfly wings
