Southern Darter

Here is a link to Chuns article on Pterostigmal colour under differing lights: http://wongchunxing.com/DragonFly/Family...

Just checked this John, went back to the original photos and lightened them but they still show red. ChunXingWong did some experiments in Borneo and discovered that on some species the pterostigmas appear yellow in bright sunlight and red in deep shade! This seems to be the case here, lack of shadow indicates the picture was taken in shade. Will e-mail more on this later or tomorrow. In the meantime I have corrected this page. See also the one with a mix of species, I think the Southerns show the same on different wings of the same individual where some wings are in shade and others in sunlight.

This is a dark photograph and I think that is making yellowish pterostigmas look a little reddish. However, there are two clear features strongly indicating S. meridionale: the completely clear wings and the lack of any black markings on the dorsal side of the abdomen (almost all Sympetrum species have two black spots on S8 & S9). I fancy the legs can just be seen to be light in colour through the wings, too (S. meridionale has quite light/yellow legs).