Slender Skimmer

Fascinating facts about the Slender Skimmer

• Its wings stretch between 60 mm and 85 mm, putting the slender skimmer in the medium-sized class of dragonflies, big enough to dart across a garden but still small enough to slip through a child's hand. That span lets it zip between reeds while still being able to hover on a twig for minutes.
• The adult's body shines in grey-greenish yellow with black accents, and its eyes glow green, a palette that blends with sun-dappled reeds. A key field mark is the pale spot on abdominal segment four that stops short of the rear edge when seen from above.
• From the sun-baked coasts of south-eastern Europe and North Africa all the way to the misty islands of Micronesia, this dragonfly spans continents. Its range stretches to Japan in the north and reaches down to Australia in the south.
• When not hunting, the slender skimmer often sits motionless on shrubs or dry twigs, waiting like a tiny statue for prey to flutter by. It then snaps up smaller butterflies and even other dragonflies, showing a voracious appetite for fellow insects.
• Its scientific name, Orthetrum sabina, reflects a straight abdomen (from Greek orthos and ētron) and possibly a nod to Saint Sabina.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Slender Skimmer

As the sun casts its golden light upon the tranquil waters, the Slender Skimmer emerges, its iridescent blue body glimmering like a fragment of sky as it dances across the surface, its delicate wings beating at a hypnotic pace. With an effortless elegance, it hovers, a master of the air, its long, slender abdomen twitching with each nimble movement, as it patrols its kingdom with a quiet confidence. In this serene world of water and light, the Slender Skimmer reigns, a fleeting, ethereal monarch, its beauty leaving an indelible mark on all who are fortunate enough to witness its gentle majesty.

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