Green skimmer
The green skimmer is a dragonfly with a greenish body in front and a long black tail with pale spots. Its wings are see-through, with just a tiny dark spot near the body. It zooms over calm, shallow water looking for a meal.
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Fun facts
Its long tail has straight sides, which is where the first part of its scientific name comes from.
It looks almost exactly like another dragonfly, the slender skimmer, so even experts can mix them up in north-eastern Australia.
In Australia it lives from the very top of the Northern Territory down to central Queensland.
It likes many kinds of calm water, often very shallow ponds and pools.
Most asked questions about Green skimmer
?Where does the green skimmer live?
In Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, near calm, shallow water.
?How big is a green skimmer?
Its wings measure about 6 to 8.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Orthetrum serapia
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Orthetrum serapia (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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