#3727 · 🪽 dragonflies & damselflies

Violet Dropwing

🇳🇱 Purperlibel ·Trithemis annulata

LCleast concern 🪽 Dragonflies & damselflies 📍 in Europe, not in NL

7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © tjeerd · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © elbebiber · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © Erland Refling Nielsen · CC BY-NC 4.0
4. © Elios Garcia · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © Maurizio Sighele · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
6. © Elios Garcia · CC BY-NC 4.0
7. © Robert Taylor · CC BY 4.0

what is it?

Trithemis annulata , known commonly as the violet dropwing , violet-marked darter , purple-blushed darter or plum-coloured dropwing , is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in most of Africa, in the Middle East, in the Arabian Peninsula and southern Europe. These insects are called dropwings because of their habit of immediately lowering their wings after landing on a perch. Males of this species are violet-red with red veins in the wings while females are...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 16,612iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
16,612 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Palisot de Beauvois in 1807 (219 years ago).