Blue oriental maid
| Blue oriental maid | ||||||||||||
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Blue Oriental Maiden ( Epallage fatime ) |
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| Epallage fatime | ||||||||||||
| ( Charpentier , 1840) |
The blue oriental damsel ( Epallage fatime ) is a dragonfly from the Euphaeidae family, which is predominantly found in the tropics, and is their only European representative.
distribution
The species, which is only found in rivers, reaches Europe in the southeast. Its European distribution includes the Greek Aegean coast including the island of Rhodes, the east of Bulgaria and the Romanian Black Sea coast. An occurrence reported in Hungary ( Kiskunság National Park ) far from the rest of the distribution area requires confirmation.
Outside of Europe, the species is widespread and quite common in all of Turkey (as far as there are rivers), it is also found in the Near and Middle East, Iran, the Caucasus, Pakistan and NW India.
features
About 50 mm long. Females are black to black-brown in color, males bronze to dark olive green, with yellow markings. The thorax has five yellow lines on the side and a yellow dorsal line. The abdomen also has a fine yellow dorsal line and yellow lines on the anterior segments. The head is drawn extensively in yellow. In the male, the entire drawing is covered by a wax-dust-like, wipeable coating that makes the whole animal (not drawn) look dull light blue. What is striking is a sharply defined crescent-shaped dark drawing that occupies the tip of the wings, this drawing is individual and sometimes also locally differently extensive and can rarely be missing, usually it extends from the pterostigma to the wing tip. Otherwise the wings are crystal clear, the base is tinted slightly yellow. The animals look unusually robust to small dragonflies and could be confused with large dragonflies at first glance. At rest, the males usually do not fold their wings all the way up, but leave them somewhat open in a characteristic way.
Larvae
The larvae reach a body length of around 20 millimeters, and are relatively short and stocky-looking for dragonfly larvae. The strong staple legs have flattened legs (femora). Their color ranges from straw yellow to dark brown and is not very characteristic. The outer gill leaves, which are balloon-like at the base, are very noticeable. It is characteristic of all species of the Euphaeidae family that, in addition to the normal anal gill leaves, there are also small, tubular gills on the sides of the abdomen. In the species, seven leaf-shaped pairs of gills sit laterally on the underside of the abdomen segments two to eight, they are not visible when viewed from above. The mask of the larva is wide and undivided, not constricted in the middle, it narrows evenly towards the rear.
Life cycle
At least the European populations seem to need two years for development to imago (semivoltin). The adults' flight time is from April to July.
habitat
The species only inhabits rivers. Most of the reports concern small streams with a high gradient and stony bottom, which can occasionally dry out in summer. In addition, the species is also regularly given from rivers. There are finds of moderately organically polluted rivers, but the resistance of the species to pollution is basically unknown. After hatching the males remain most of the time on shore waters where they similar to calopterygidae defend brief banks pieces as a territory against other males. The dark markings on the wings could serve as a signal here.
threat
In its main area of distribution, the species is often and not directly threatened, although it is certainly declining locally due to the degradation of many flowing waters in its generally quite arid area. In the Mediterranean area as a whole, it is not considered to be endangered. The small, outpost-like European populations on the edge of the range are latently threatened by habitat destruction. It is therefore considered potentially endangered ("near threatened"), with a decreasing trend.
literature
- RR Askew (1988): The dragonflies of Europe. Harley Books, Colchester, England. ISBN 0-946589-10-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ H.Steinmann (1986): The odonate fauna of the Kiskunsag National Park. Fauna Kiskunsag National Park 1: 85–91.
- ^ VJ Kalkman & GJ van Pelt (2006): The distribution and flight period of the dragonflies of Turkey. Brachytron 10 (1): 83-153.
- ↑ Christophe Brochard (ed.): Les Larves de Libellules de Paul-André Robert. KNNV Publishing, Zeist. ISBN 978 90 5011 6831 . 320 pages, Epallage fatime on pages 54–55.
- ↑ Elisa Riservato, Jean-Pierre Boudot, Sonia Ferreira, Miloš Jović, Vincent J.Kalkman, Wolfgang Schneider, Boudjéma Samraoui, Annabelle Cuttelod: The status and distribution of dragonflies of the mediterranean basin. IUCN Red List. Gland, Switzerland and Malaga, Spain. Ed .: IUCN. vii + 33 pp. ISBN 978-2-8317-1161-4 .
- ↑ Vincent J. Kalkman, Jean-Pierre Boudot, Rafał Bernard, Klaus-Jürgen Conze, Geert De Knijf, Elena Dyatlova, Sónia Ferreira, Miloš Jović, Jürgen Ott, Elisa Riservato and Göran Sahlén (2010): European Red List of Dragonflies. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. ISBN 978-92-79-14153-9 doi : 10.2779 / 84650
