| Nesciothemis farinosa (Forster,
1898) is a species of dragonfly in family Libellulidae. It is found in
Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria,
Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical
moist lowland forests, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical
dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, rivers, intermittent
rivers, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater
marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes.
Common names for this species include
Black-tailed Skimmer (not to be confused with the European and Asian species
of the same name, Orthetrum cancellatum), Black-tailed Dancer, Black-tailed
False-skimmer
and Common Blacktail.
Nesciothemis farinosa is a fairly
large and robust dragonfly. The body length is around 40-46 mm, hindwing
length around 30-35 mm. The male, as the common name suggests, has a distinctly
black tail. Its head is also black, while the eyes are brown-black above
and lighter below. The thorax is powdery blue-grey, while the abdomen is
blue-grey for the first five segments, but becomes black with pale yellow
markings on the upper side of the remaining segments. These markings become
darker, sometimes almost black, as the dragonfly ages. The abdomen of this
species is straight and pointed. The wings of the male are mostly clear,
becoming opaque and smoky-grey as the individual becomes older.
The female is very different to the
male in appearance, with a wholly light brown face, a brown labrum that
is margined with yellow, and a brown thorax, which is lighter on the sides
and darker above. There is a distinct pale brown or cream line, separating
the upper and lower sides of the thorax, and the abdomen is yellow-brown
with a darker line running along the length of both sides. The young female
has clear wings with brown tips, which disappear and begin to turn smoky-grey
as the individual ages The pterostigma, a thickened cell found on the outer
edge of the wing, is deep yellow-brown in the male and female.
The black-tailed skimmer is found
in forest, bush, savanna and woodland. In South Africa, it can be found
up to elevations of 1,200 metres, and between 800 and 1,890 metres in Malawi.
Within these areas, its preferred habitat includes freshwater pools, pans,
marshes and quiet reaches of rivers where it can perch on reeds or tall
grass. The larvae of the black-tailed skimmer can be found in springs and
other small water bodies with dense reed vegetation
The most widespread species in the
genus Nesciothemis, the black-tailed skimmer is found in most countries
of sub-Saharan Africa, from Egypt in the north, south throughout Africa
to South Africa, and from Angola in the west to Somalia in the east. Therefore
it is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List
References:
http://www.arkive.org/black-tailed-skimmer/nesciothemis-farinosa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesciothemis_farinosa
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/59921/0
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