Globe Skimmer (male)

Description:

A medium sized dragonfly. Male: Face is bright golden yellow or orange. Eyes: Reddish brown above, bluish grey on sides and below. Thorax: Olivaceous or rusty and is coated thickly with fine yellowish hair. On sides, it is pale green or bluish green. Legs: Black. Wings: Transparent and base of hind wing amber yellow. Wing spot: Bright reddish brown. Abdomen: Bright reddish brown and is tinted with brick red dorsally. The segments 8-10 have black spots above.

Habitat:

Spotted on Impatiens balsamina.

Notes:

The Globe Skimmer (also known as Wandering Glider), as its name suggests, has a very wide distribution area. Their arrival in the subtropics and tropics coincides with the Intertropical Convergence Zone. More evidence of their preference for moist winds, is that the dragonfly migrates to Southeast India's Tamil Nadu only after the second monsoon which is brings the rain to that region. In the rest of India, however, it arrives with the first rain-making monsoon. Observations and stable isotope evidence suggests that they migrate from India or beyond to Africa across the Arabian Sea. It is the highest-flying dragonfly, recorded at 6,200 m in the Himalayas.