Big blue arrow
| Big blue arrow | ||||||||||||
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Great blue arrow ( Orthetrum cancellatum ), male |
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| Orthetrum cancellatum | ||||||||||||
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The great blue arrow ( Orthetrum cancellatum ) is the largest dragonfly species of the genus Orthetrum from the family of the sail dragonflies (Libellulidae). It is common in most of the Palearctic , with the exception of northern Russia, northern Great Britain and Scandinavia . To the east, its area extends to Kashmir and Mongolia. The scientific species name can be translated as "latticed". This is due to the pattern of the abdomen of the females and also of the immature males.
features
Construction of the Imago
While females and males look almost the same pale greyish green immediately after hatching, the females then turn yellow with a black grid pattern and finally brown to dark olive green with age. The juvenile males still resemble the young - yellow-black - females, while as sexually mature animals they develop a dull blue wax tire on the abdomen. Your thorax is then dark brown, the tip of the abdomen also dark. The body length ranges from 44 to 50 millimeters. The hind wings are 35 to 40 millimeters long in the males; in females, they are at most imperceptibly longer at 35 to 41 millimeters. In order to distinguish between similar species, the males include, among other things, the extent and intensity of the blue frosting on the body and the green color of the complex eyes (see other blue arrows ) or the absence of dark triangular spots on the base of the hind wings (compare flat belly , tip spot ) to pay attention to.
Construction of the larva
The larva of the Great Blue Arrow is sepia colored and hairy. However, the hair usually sticks together due to the dirt. It reaches a length of 25.5 millimeters and a width of eight millimeters on the sixth segment . The head is rather small at five and a half millimeters wide. The ocelles are covered by an incrustation. The eyes are round and located on the front edge of the head. The antenna consists of seven segments, the first two of which are pressed, the following longer, the next two short and the last two longer.
The labium is relatively short and wide. When closed, it is five and a half millimeters long and four millimeters wide. The palpi are triangular and concave, each with seven bristles. The front and middle pair of legs are each eleven millimeters long, the rear 18 millimeters. The thickest part of the abdomen is located on the sixth or seventh segment. The length of the individual segments is roughly the same, only segment ten is much smaller. On segments three to six there are dorsal spines surrounded by longer hairs, with the one on the third segment being small. Lateral spines are located on the eighth and ninth segments.
Distribution and habitat
The Great Blue Arrow is widespread in Europe and West Asia and populates, among other things, most of Europe. In Scandinavia and England, however, it is restricted to the south.
The species prefers open, sun-exposed bodies of water and riparian zones. A loose vegetation with reeds or rushes is also common. They can be found, for example, on lakes, in gravel pits and on fish ponds. Like to put the imagines to sunbathe on rocky or sandy ground. Emergence (hatching of dragonflies) usually begins in the second half of May at lower altitudes and peaks in June. The main flight time is in July and early August; the last animals can still be found in September and occasionally in October.
Scientific descriptions
Linnaeus first described the animal as Libellula cancellata in 1758 . The male holotype came from Sweden and is now in the Natural History Museum in London . Next, in 1764 , Müller described the animal as Libellula frumenti . In 1878, Buchecker used a male that is now in the museum in Zurich as a type of the genus Hydronymphia . He described it as the animal Hydronymphia helvetica . Twelve years later, Kirby placed the species in the genus Orthetrum in which it is still listed today. At the same time he synonymous Müller and Buchecker's description. In 1909 Ris placed his Orthetrum kraepelini, first described in 1897, as a subspecies O. cancellatum kraepelini next to O. cancellatum cancellatum . The male from Central Asia is now in Hamburg . The third subspecies, O. cancellatum orientale , added Belyshev in 1958 with the description of a male from Mongolia . The animal on which the description is based is located in the Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Henrik Steinmann - World Catalog of Odonata (Volume II Anisoptera) [p. 413f], de Gruyter, 1997, ISBN 3-11-014934-6
- ↑ a b Klaus Sternberg: Orthetrum cancellatum (Linnaeus, 1758) - Large blue arrow. P. 492–506 in: Sternberg / Buchwald (ed.): Die Libellen Baden-Württemberg. Volume 2: Dragonflies (Anisoptera). Ulmer, Stuttgart 2000. ISBN 3-8001-3514-0
- ^ Robert, Paul-A .: Die Libellen (Odonaten) - Authorized translation by Otto Paul Wenger [p. 284ff], Kümmerly & Frey, Geographischer Verlag, Bern 1959
- ↑ Lucas, William John .: The Aquatic (Naiad) Stage of the British Dragonflies (Paraneuroptera) [p. 76ff], The Ray Society, London 1930
literature
- Sternberg, K. (2000): Orthetrum cancellatum (Linnaeus, 1758) - Large blue arrow. Pp. 492-506. In: Sternberg, K. & R. Buchwald (eds.): Die Libellen Baden-Württemberg. Volume 2: Dragonflies (Anisoptera). Ulmer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8001-3514-0
- Klaas-Douwe BD & R. Lewington (2006): Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe. British Wildlife Publishing. ISBN 0-9531399-4-8
- Bellmann, H. (2007): The Kosmos Dragonfly Guide . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH & Co., Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-440-10616-7
Web links
- Orthetrum cancellatum in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.1. Posted by: Mitra, A., 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
- Orthetrum cancellatum in Fauna Europaea
- Protection status in Germany