Bog Skimmer Dragonfly - Orthetrum villosovittatum
FAMILY LIBELLULIDAE - Skimmers
- Male and female, body length 45mm
This page contains information and pictures about Bog Skimmer Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
Bog Skimmer Dragonflies are one of the most common species in Brisbane. They are also known as Fiery Skimmer. They are easily recognized and are very friendly to observers, i.e., they will not fly away unless you come really too close. We can usually find a lot of them along a creek on a sunny day.
- Male, body length 45mm
Bog Skimmers are in FAMILY LIBELLULIDAE, they have distinctly broadened abdomen. Their bodies are distinctively shorter than their wings span. Males are in red colour and females are in brown yellow colour. Males tend to perch in the open and exposed branches, logs, or sandy shorelines. They spend more time at rest. Males are territorial and will often return to the same or a nearby spot. Females oviposit alone or in the company of guarding males, and dip the abdomen in the water for releasing the eggs.
- Female, body length 45mm
- The female Blue Scarlet Dragonfly has golden thorax and brown abdomen, with a black line on the back along the top of abdomen.
- The above pictures show a female which is bright yellow to yellowish-brown in colour, and a male which is bright red in colour. Their thorax are dark in colour. The wings of females are yellowish-brown.
- The male is courtshipping to attract the female. Male overtakes female from above, grasps female head or thorax and curves his abdomen to grip the female's prothorax with his anal appendages and form pair in tandem. Then the female will curve her abdomen to form the copulation wheel. Bog Skimmer Dragonflies usually form the wheel in the air.
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- A close-up of the male Bog Skimmer Dragonfly.
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- Immature female, body length 45mm
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- Wings of male. Their two pairs of wing are about equal in size. They are clean in colour. Quite a number of wing parts of this specimen are broken. This indicated the dragonfly was in its old age.
- Wings of female.
