Odonata

There’s a Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly, Orthetrum coerulescens, above this tiny stream in Rome. It’s a female and has the distinctive black line along its back, which is why it’s called Keeled.

There are two groups of related insects, the dragonflies and the damselflies. Dragonflies are usually larger, with their eyes together and their wings up or out at rest.

We wait a moment and the dragonfly is joined by a damselfly, a Copper Demoiselle, Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis.

Damselflies are usually smaller with their eyes apart and their wings line-up along their body at rest.

I thank both of them for the demonstration as they wing away.