BluTuna wrote:Winter has arrived in Johannesburg, a bit earlier than usual. The low temperatures seem to be keeping the bugs away and the past long weekend's sightings were very sparse.
This appears to be a Dragonfly I've not seen in my garden before, unless it's a morph of the Red Veined Dropwing.
This is an Orthetrum sp, either a teneral male or a female
Teneral male of Orthetrum chrysostigma would look like this
http://www.fotonatura.org/galerias/fotos/173865/
Orthetrum chrysostigma: Thorax greenish to yellowish brown
with a distinctive light creamish stripe this one does not have a white stripe
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Orthetrum abbotti: here an immature female (looks pretty good to me)
http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http ... CGEQrQMwAw
Female:
face all greenish cream, unmarked except for two blackish markings on dorsal surface of frons adjacent to eyes.
Vertex dark brown with low peaks.
Thorax greenish cream,
virtually unmarked except for darkening of sutures. Dorsal surface of thorax covered with minute, blackish spines, giving a fine, spotted appearance. Wings slightly smoky, with darker smoky patches reaching arculus. Costa yellow.
Abdomen light yellowish brown, with dark brown lateral markings starting on S4, becoming wider, joining on S8. S9 all dark brown. S10 yellowish posteriorly, with two,
fine black dots. A fine blackish line runs mid-dorsally from S3-8, with paired dark markings at end of each S3-7.
More photos here
http://www.warwicktarboton.co.za/dfpgs/104abbotti.html
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Orthetrum icteromelas
is too yellow, not greenish and is also more slender
http://www.warwicktarboton.co.za/dfpgs/ ... melas.html
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It is NOT Orthetrum hintzi
Top of abdomen continuously yellowish and no black mid-dorsally
http://www.greglasley.net/nonBirds/yellowjack.html
