Cordulegaster boltonii (Common Goldenring/Golden-ringed Dragonfly)

This strikingly handsome, black and yellow creature doesn’t live in my neck of the woods. We don’t seem to have the gravely/stony riverbeds that it prefers. It seems keen on our western and northern areas, including Scotland, together with the New Forest, where it does fly and where we have seen it, though not to photograph. We have photographed it in the UK at the excellent Thursley Common NNR and in Scotland.

Some other subjects below were in France where one has ot be careful of not mixing it up with C. bidentata (Somber Goldenring) as I once did. 😉

Id Notes

• Black and yellow striped thorax
• Black and yellow abdomen – yellow rings, alternately thick and thin, on a black ground
• Green eyes

male

female

in flight