Dragons mating

Orthetrum chrysis

Orthetrum testaceum testaceum

Orthetrum pruinosum pruinosum

Crocothemis servilia servilia

I was really pleased to be able to capture some images of this mating pair, as I am having a lot of problems identifying the local dragon population. There are several species that are very similar, also there are male dragonflies of another species that have the same coloration as this female.

In the end, the images did not help, as on the authoritative site that I use for identifications, I suspect that errors have been made, as I found matches under both species. The best that I can do, is keep collecting images, hopefully more mating pairs and see if I can at least separate them into groups. I can then submit my findings to the website for evaluation.

So for now, I present a pretty red male with an orange female!

Dave