I did see one of these fabulous beasts flash by me once at Thursley Common but that was it, a brilliant green flash with no chance of recording the event.
We finally found a relatively consistent individual at the Lac de Bourdouze in the Auvergne region of France in 2018. Although the sun was in front of us, our quarry flew continuously following a similar route as we both stood on the bank doing what we could. We had further meetings in 2019 both in Germany and in France.
They rarely settle and all these had read the job description. One day, I’ll find one hung up … one day.
The Emerald Anisopterans can be tricky to identify in flight since they all tend to have brilliant green eyes. Once seen, though, S. metallica‘s body really does deserve the description brilliant.
Id Notes
- bright green eyes
- very shiny metallic green body
- in the UK, yellow markings on the top sides of the frons distinguish from Cordulia aenea
- in Europe, no yellow spot on the thorax side distinguishes from S. meridionalis
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