''Ischnura aurora'', the gossamer damselfy or golden dartlet and also known as the aurora bluetail, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

damselfly Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings alo ...

in the family

Coenagrionidae The insect family Coenagrionidae is placed in the order Odonata and the suborder Zygoptera. The Zygoptera are the damselflies, which although less known than the dragonflies, are no less common. More than 1,300 species are in this family, maki ...

Adults

A small apple green damselfly with black thoracic stripes and blue tipped yellow tail. Male

Eyes Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and c ...

: Black half moon-like cap above,

olive green Olive is a dark yellowish-green color, like that of unripe or green olives. As a color word in the English language, it appears in late Middle English. Shaded toward gray, it becomes olive drab. Variations Olivine Olivine is the typical ...

to dark olive below, which fades to pale olive beneath. Two

azure blue This list of Donald Duck universe characters focuses on Disney cartoon and comics characters who typically appear with Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck, but are not related to them. For relatives of Donald and Scrooge, see Duck family (Disney) o ...

spots are present behind the eyes.

Thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

: Shining black with two pale

grass green Richard Edward "Grass" Green (May 7, 1939Social Security Death Index. – August 5, 2002) was an African American cartoonist notable for being the first black participant in both the 1960s fan art movement and the 1970s underground comics movement. ...

stripes; sides are light green and white below.

Legs A leg is a weight-bearing and animal locomotion, locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single ...

: Pale greenish white with a vertical stripe on the

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...

, just above the femur - tibia joint.

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...

: Transparent. Wing spots: The wing spots are different in fore and hindwings, being rose-red on the forewings and uniform pale grey on the hindwings.

Abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the tors ...

: Bright reddish yellow. The upper parts of the second and seventh segments have narrow and broad black marks, respectively. A third of the length of the eighth segment and the full length of the ninth segment are blue. The base color of the eighth segment

tergite A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'mar ...

is melanic black. Female Eyes: Brown half moon-like cap above, green to pale green below. Thorax: Shining black with two orange stripes; sides are pale green. Legs: Pale white with vertical black stripes on femur, just above femur - tibia joint. Abdomen: A broad black stripe runs along the upper side of abdomen. The eight to tenth segments do not have azure blue markings.

Habitat

Found among vegetation along the banks of ponds, rivers, canals, marshes and wet

rice fields A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre-Aus ...

Distribution

It is found across Australia, the

Pacific Islands Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. There are strong differences in DNA between the Asian forms of the species and specimens from the Pacific. The form found on the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

and in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

is ''Ischnura aurora rubilio'' (Selys, 1876) and is now considered a different

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

, ''

Ischnura rubilio ''Ischnura rubilio'', western golden dartlet, is a species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in Indian subcontinent and Iran. Earlier it was considered as a subspecies of ''Ischnura aurora'', distributed from Australia and P ...

''.

Gallery

File:Ischnura aurora.jpg, Male in Australia Ischnura aurora 008.svg, Illustration of ''Ischnura aurora'' wing Ischnura aurora female wings (34665058012).jpg , Photo of female wings Ischnura aurora male wings (33985083454).jpg , Photo of male wings

References

External links