Scarlet basker
Urothemis signata
The scarlet basker is a bright red dragonfly with red eyes and a blood red tail. At the base of each back wing it has an amber spot with a dark brown patch around it. The female looks the same but is yellowish instead of red.
Lives in
Many parts of Asia, and also New Guinea and Australia, around ponds and slow rivers
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Dragonflies have no sting.
What does it eat?
It catches small flying insects. Its babies grow up under water in ponds and slow rivers.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Scarlet basker about 40 km/h (25 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Males like to sit on bare twigs out in the open.
2
It lays its eggs in ponds and slow rivers, mostly in the lowlands.
3
It has moved into cities and now lives on park ponds too.
4
Near the end of its tail it has some black marks.
you asked
Most asked questions about Scarlet basker
?Is the scarlet basker dangerous?
No. Dragonflies have no sting and are harmless to people.
?Where does the scarlet basker live?
In many Asian countries, and one kind of it lives in Australia and New Guinea. It likes ponds and slow rivers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Urothemis signata
- Named by
- Rambur, 1842
- Group
- Dragonflies and damselflies
- Family
- Libellulidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Odonata > Libellulidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Greater crimson glider
Where the facts come from
- Urothemis signata (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 Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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