Crocothemis
Genus of dragonflies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crocothemis is a genus of dragonflies in the Libellulidae family,[2] subfamily Sympetrinae (darters). Various species of this genus occur in southern Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Southwest Pacific. They are generally small to medium-sized dragonflies.
| Crocothemis | |
|---|---|
| |
| Crocothemis servilia male | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Odonata |
| Infraorder: | Anisoptera |
| Family: | Libellulidae |
| Subfamily: | Sympetrinae |
| Genus: | Crocothemis Brauer, 1868[1] |
These dragonflies are often noticed due to their colours. Males are generally very brightly coloured, ranging from totally red in several species, to the rich blue of Australia's C. nigrifrons. As with many Libellulid species, the females tend to be dull brown or orange.
Like most libellulids they tend to perch on sticks, reeds or stones near water, flying out to catch insects then returning to their perch.
Species
The genus contains the following species:[3]
| Male | Female | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crocothemis brevistigma Pinhey, 1961 | Spotted Scarlet | Ikelenge, Mwinilunga, Zambia | ||
| Crocothemis chaldaeorum Morton, 1920 | Bahrain; Iran; Iraq; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait | |||
| Crocothemis corocea Navás, 1918 | ||||
 |  | Crocothemis divisa Karsch, 1898 | divisa scarlet, slender scarlet, slender scarlet-darter[4] | tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar |
 |  | Crocothemis erythraea (Brullé, 1832) | scarlet darter,[5] broad scarlet[6] | southern Europe and throughout Africa, western Asia as far as southern China |
 | _(16181348591).jpg) | Crocothemis nigrifrons (Kirby, 1894) | black-headed skimmer[7] | Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. |
 | Crocothemis sanguinolenta (Burmeister, 1839) | little scarlet, slim scarlet-darter, small scarlet[8] | Africa south of the Sahara (including Madagascar), in the Levant, and in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. | |
 | Crocothemis saxicolor Ris, 1921 | granite scarlet[9] | Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, possibly Liberia, and possibly Sierra Leone. | |
 | .jpg) | Crocothemis servilia (Drury, 1773) | scarlet skimmer,[10] oriental scarlet[11] | east and southeast Asia |
| Crocothemis striata Lohmann, 1981 | Black-legged Scarlet | Madagascar | ||
