Thanks, Alan. Maybe you are right. Honestly I was and still am undecided between those to species.It's actually a Scarce Chaser. By coincidence, I got my first Blacktailed Skimmer today. The Scarce Chaser has blue eyes. This Blacktailed is still immature
I didn't see the the typical spots on the wingtips, which should be prominent for a young scarce chaser.
And the eyes were more geenish than blueish.
IMO, those two facts pointed towards a blacktailed skimmer.
Looking at your dragonfly I get confused by the brown compound eyes.
For both - young and old blacktailed skimmer males - they should be greenish.
And looking at the brown spots at the wing roots my guess for your dragonfly could be a broad-bodied chaser.
But the abdomen is not wide enough for that.
Still mulling over this...
Edit: visible distinguishing marks between blacktailed skimmer, scarce chaser, and broad-bodied chaser
blacktailed skimmer, male (orthetrum cancellatum)
- no basal spots on any wings
- mature have green eyes
scarce chaser, male (aka. blue chaser, libellula fulva)
- basal spots only on the hind wings, fine basal lines on the fore wings
- mature have blue eyes
broad-bodied chaser, male (libellula depressa)
- large basal spots on all four wings
- mature have brown eyes
Conclusion:
Both, yours @AlanF and mine are scarce chasers if you refer to the basal marks.
As for the side view at my picture the basal marks are not so easy to detect.
The "wrong" eye colours might be from being immature.
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