Dragonflies of Canary Islands

domingo, 17 de enero de 2016

Wandering glider

January 16, 2016, pantala flavescens again seen in Gran Canaria.

lunes, 5 de enero de 2015

Hemianax or Anax ephippiger is a dragonfly that arrives from the African Continent to Canary Islands every year around December or January, helped by the favourable winds from the Sahara. Is one of the biggest dragonflies found here, with a lenght of 7 cm.

It looks very similar to Anax imperator in terms of shape and markings on its abdomen, but not in colour, its head has a yellowish colour, with a black line on the frons. males have a characteristic blue "saddle" mark on the first abdominal segment, the rest are yellowish, pterostigmas are, in general, yellow as well.

When laying eggs they form "tandems" where males catch females by their head, then they fly to the shore of the water sources and stop on a plant or branch without separating, and finally the female fix their eggs to it.

Gracias a Pablo Martinez-Darve por la traducción al inglés de esta entrada.

domingo, 10 de febrero de 2013

Pantala flavescens

Pantala Flavescens, popularly known as “Globe skimmer” or “wandering glider” due to its migratory bahaviour, is one of the most widespread dragonflies of the World, present in South America, Africa, India, China, Japan, Australia, inhabits all continents except Europe.

Due to the proximity between Canary island and Continental Africa we thought that there was a Strong possibility that they could reach our islands and probably to get settled in them, in fact there are some works that talk about this fact, now we have the prove that, finally, Pantala flavescens flies in Gran Canaria.

At the beginning of january, after some days of “Calima” (southern winds coming from Sahara Desert) we saw one “different” dragonfly overflying a little water reservoir in the southeastern part of Gran Canaria, it had a different behaviour to all our known species in the island, and we started to suspect…..It never stopped, and the pictures we took were too far away to identify it.

But some days after that, we returned to that place and managed to take a decent picture for getting a definite ID to this “new dragonfly” some days after that two good friends found and photographed another one stopped on a branch.

Now we can proudly say that we have found and pictured the 11th species of dragonfly in Gran Canaria, they probably arrive in good years with favorable winds from Continental Africa but unfortunately we haven´t fount that they settle and reproduce here, we´ll be watching….

Mi agradecimiento a Pablo Martínez-Darve por la redacción del texto y traducción al inglés de esta entrada.