Brilliant Emerald

Brilliant emerald dragonfly ( Somatochlora metallica ) young male, very shortly after hatching

The Brilliant emerald dragonfly ( Somatochlora metallica ) is a species of the family of Falk dragonflies. Remarkable are the erzgrün dazzling body and emerald green eyes.

Features

This dragonfly is up to six inches long and reaches a wingspan of seven centimeters. Thorax and abdomen are colored shiny metallic - green, in aged animals, also gold -green to coppery. The end before the eyes has a yellow transverse fascia. The males are fitted; her abdomen is at its widest at the level of the fifth and sixth segment. The females have a remarkably long (up to 3 mm) and vertically downwardly projecting laying vagina. The quite similar Falk dragonfly (also: Common Emerald dragonfly; Cordulia Aenea ) differs among other things, a more club-shaped thickened abdomen ( males; widest at the 7th and 8th segment ) or a cylindrical abdomen without conspicuous ovipositor ( female) and looks a bit more hairy.

Dissemination

The Brilliant emerald dragonfly is a Euro Siberian faunal element; northward hands her complex to the subarctic treeline ( in Norway and Finland to 70 ° 25 'north latitude, in Siberia to 69 ° 40' nB ). To the east it extends up to Tomsk in Siberia, west to Lorraine in France ( beyond only selectively, the same goes for the UK). In southern France, northern and central Italy, on the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in the subspecies Somatochlora metallica meridionalis occurs that is considered but often also as a separate species Balkan emerald dragonfly ( Somatochlora meridionalis ). In Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, the Shining emerald dragonfly is common and often regionally. In Germany it is overall somewhat rarer than Cordulia Aenea, in northern Germany, however, it behaves vice versa.

Habitat and behavior

The Brilliant emerald dragonfly inhabits particularly stagnant water medium size, such as ponds with wooded banks, not infrequently, dystrophic bog waters. Slowly flowing ditches and streams but are also populated.

Flight time sometimes begins in Central Europe in late May, has its peak but only in July and August and ends in September. Individual animals as Imago rarely older than two months. The males hardly ever rest, they usually fly patrolling the waters along the shore. They are in search of females and distribute competing males from their territory. Females are hiding in the reeds. When oviposition they take an eye-catching attitude by bending the two rearmost abdominal segments perpendicular to the top. Then the abdomen is immersed with the ovipositor into the water in Rüttelflug under bobbing movements, where the eggs are stripped.

The eggs hatch after four to six weeks into larvae. These are a little stronger built than that of Cordulia Aenea and have curved Dorsaldornen on. They spend two to three years in the water before they undergo metamorphosis to the imago.