Alicante Butterflies, Dragonflies and Damselflies (part1)

Tristan Reid
Tristan Reid

One of the highlights of the trip to Alicante was the numbers of Damselflies, Dragonflies, Butterflies etc. The one pictured above is a rarity!! It is called a Banded Groundling and is a recent colonist from North Africa. We saw this one at Pego Marsh Oliva. Many thanks to Tristan Reid for these photos.

Thanks again to Brian Nelson for the following:

Banded Groundling Brachythemis leucosticta was found in 2009 to be actually two species Brachythemis impartita and Brachythemis leucosticta. The distributions are mostly exclusive with impartita the one in west Africa and Africa north of Sahara and also now southern Europe. The common name is now Northern Banded Groundling.

Dijkstra K.-D. B. & Matushkina N., 2009. Kindred spirits: “Brachythemis leucosticta”, Africa’s most familiar dragonfly, consists of two species (Odonata: Libellulidae). International Journal of Odonatology, 12 (2): 237-252

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