Red-veined Darter

Thanks for your comments taka.ita, I have changed this one. Many of us are not familiar with Dragonfly identification and what to look for so if you are an expert, or even just more knowledgeable on the subject, you could check out some of our other dragonflies and point us in the right direction. I'll check back again in 10 days.

It is a Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii). The wildaboutspain link also shows a Red-veined Darter. The Scarlet Darter has a very broad abdomen, this one hasn't. Then there is the lighter (yellowish) stripe on the side of the thorax, which also points to Red-Veined Darter. One more: look at the color of the legs. Red-veined has that black-with-yellow, Scarlet has much lighter colored legs.

No probleEmily. If you're interested, here is a link to more detailed information. http://insects.about.com/od/identifyanin...

Thanks for the info Malcolm! :)

Excellent :)

Thanks Tina, I actually discovered the same species on another site http://deliry.cluster006.ovh.net/croery.... and was double checking it at the same time, only saw your comment just after editing it.

I think that the crocothemis erythraea in this picture (when mating) are very similar to yours, apart from the brown areas you have in the eye of yours. But the eyes can be different though... http://www.wildaboutspain.com/2/post/201...
Tina

Hi Emily, it is not even a Damselfly, it is a Dragonfly. Look at the head shape, a Dragonfly has a head of more or less even dimensions with the eyes close together and holds its wings out perpendicular to the body on either side, usually with the tips slightly forward and downward.
A Damselfly has its eyes on each side of the head making it look very wide and holds its wings back alongside its body or spread out at a backward angle.
I have used a mix of Spanish and French websites to create a collection of photographs of all 54 species of Dragonfly in Iberia but I need some time to go through it to to get the true identity of this one. It is possible to use the same sources to create one for Damselflies also. Due to copyright reasons I can only have links to the pictures one at a time hence the delay in getting an ID on my latest round of Dragonflies.

I'm not sure if it's a Large Red Damselfly? It's a European damselfly, but the lower abdomen segments look a little different. What do you think? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Red_D...