📸 PhotoPhoto: Philipp Weigell · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
White-tailed skimmer
Orthetrum albistylum (White-tailed skimmer · シオカラトンボ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 An abdomen length of 4 cm is about 1.5 times the diameter of a Korean 500-won coin (2.65 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 Commonly seen around rural waters such as rice paddies, canals, and reservoirs, females can be watched tapping the water surface with the tip of their abdomen to lay eggs (National List of Species of Korea).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The white-tailed skimmer is a dragonfly in the family Libellulidae that lives in ponds, irrigation canals, reservoirs, rice paddies, and streams throughout Korea. Males are grayish blue, while females have black markings on a pale yellow background.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Males have a gray thorax covered in white pruinescence with black stripes. Abdominal segments 1–6 are bright grayish blue, segments 7–9 are black, and the terminal appendages are white. The abdomen is 32–40 mm long and the hindwings are 36–43 mm long.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It appears from mid-April to mid-October. Females hover near the water and tap the surface with the tip of the abdomen to lay eggs, and larvae grow in lowland and hilly ponds and wetlands.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
It is distributed nationwide in Korea and ranges abroad from Japan, China, and Taiwan to Europe (National List of Species of Korea). The IUCN assessed it as Least Concern (LC) in 2020.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2020) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/158689/140578608
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6SXKX
- • iucnredlist.org — 140578608
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000037398 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000037398
- • wikidata.org — Q65031
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Orthetrum albistylum (young female) (1).JPG
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Christoph Schomburg · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Libellulidae)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.