A Visual Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies of South Africa © John Wilkinson & Rob Dickinson
Home	Damselflies	Dragonflies	Morphology
Orthetrum julia falsum	Julia Skimmer		Julia-skepper
South African/African distribution records	South African Red  List assessment	Red List assessments
ADULT MALES
TENERAL AND YOUNG MALES
AGED MALES
MALES - DIFFERENTIAL IDENTIFICATION TIPS
	SIMILAR LOOKING SPECIES
As young males, the first 3 are grouped together with julia due to the similar pattern on the abdomen. Of these 4, only brachiale and guineense have dark claspers with julia and stemmale having white claspers. The Pt of julia in most cases turns black very fast. Thorax markings very similar to robustum but the shape and color of the Pt together with the large number of doubled cells in the Rspl loops of robustum should be enough to differenciate these two. Also see the id table for fully pruinosed males PDF.
Orthetrum brachiale	Orthetrum stemmale	Orthetrum guineense	Orthetrum robustum
ADULT FEMALES
YOUNG FEMALES
AGED FEMALES
FEMALES - DIFFERENTIAL IDENTIFICATION TIPS
	SIMILAR LOOKING SPECIES
Abdomen and thorax patterns may look similar, but when young only julia and stemmale has pale claspers.  On the mature female, the Ax veins are ALWAYS dark and the pterostigma is orange to dark brown/black in contrast with brachiale that ALWAYS have pale Ax veins with light coloured Pt's. Stemmale display both pale and dark Ax veins and has pale pterostigmas.
Orthetrum brachiale	Orthetrum stemmale
PAIRS
OVIPOSITING BEHAVIOR
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON, OR PHOTOGRAPHS OF THIS SPECIES, VISIT THESE WEBSITES
SOUTH AFRICAN DAMSELFLY AND DRAGONFLY APP
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