The Eurasian baskettail (''Epitheca bimaculata'') is a species of dragonfly. It was described by

Toussaint de Charpentier Toussaint von Charpentier (22 November 1779 – 4 March 1847) was a German geologist and entomologist. He was the author of ''Libellulinae europaeae descriptae e depictae'' (1840). Biography Toussaint von Charpentier was born in Freiberg, Saxony ...

in 1825 and initially placed in the genus ''

Libellula ''Libellula'' is a genus of dragonflies, commonly called skimmers, in the family Libellulidae, distributed throughout the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species are found in the United States, where they are the best-known larg ...

''. It is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''

Epitheca ''Epitheca'' is a genus of dragonflies in the family Corduliidae The Corduliidae, also knowns as the emeralds, emerald dragonflies or green-eyed skimmers, is a family of dragonflies. These dragonflies are usually black or dark brown with area ...

''.

Distribution

Its habitat ranges from Western France to Japan and eastern Siberia. It has been found in Western Europe, but here it is "rare and seen very irregularly". It has also been found in Serbia, and

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...

, Russia. Its occurrence in Hungary is "sporadic". It also is found in Ukraine.

Biology

It flies in May and June.

Former subspecies

Two subspecies were recognized, but they were synonymized in 2004: * ''E. b. sibirica'' * ''E. b. altaica''

Distribution

Biology

Former subspecies

References

Further reading