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Tholymis tillarga

Karakara‘avai

Blue-flash Dragonfly

Multimedia & Additional Resources

Type	Description	Download
Image:	Male specimen (1)	45KB
Image:	Male specimen (2)	53KB
Image:	Female specimen	92KB
Image:	Nymph in water	77KB

General Information

COMMON NAMES: Blue-flash Dragonfly

TRADITIONAL NAMES: Pepe (PK)

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Africa - se.Asia - Indonesia/Australia - w.Pacific to Cooks - ?

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; S.Group - widespread; ?; Land, lowlands, young in Freshwater

SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Biocontrol - natural

KEY FEATURES: A medium-sized dragonfly - wingspan 7cm, body 4cm. MALE: BODY thorax brown and abdomen red. WINGS transparent pale brown, slightly darker towards the base; HINDWING anterior half, inner-central dark brown blotch adjacent to an outer-central transparent blue blotch (~5mmØ) which is conspicuous during flight. Wingtip-rectangle red-brown. FEMALE: THORAX sides olive green; ABDOMEN top brown, underside olive green; WINGS coppery sheen without blue blotch. Male and female active at dusk, often very low-flying; male more conspicuous because of the blue on the wings.

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
++		P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
			+

Key to Symbols

blank	no data
-	absent	L	localised
X	extinct 'naturally'	W	widespread
XQi	quarantine intercepted	R	recent
XQe	eradicated	?	query preceding category
P	present	T?	taxonomic query
S	seasonal	nn	present, said to have no name
O	occasional	?1	present, name not investigated
++++	very common	?2	presence not verified, no name recorded
+++	common	N/A	absent, name not expected
++	uncommon
+	rare
Cook Islands islands: RR =Rarotonga, MG = Mangaia, AT =‘Ātiu, MK=Ma‘uke, MT=Miti‘āro, AK=Aitutaki, PL=Palmerston, PN=Penrhyn, MN=Manuae, TK=Takūtea, TN=Tongareva (TS=Tongaleva Spoken, TW=Tongareva Written, they say "el" but write "r"), MH=Manihiki, RK=Rakahanga, PK=Pukapuka, NS=Nassau, SW=Suwarrow. After a Polynesian name: ^=orthography query. Countries and other: FIJ=Fiji, WT=Wallis & Futuna, SAM=Samoa, TON=Tonga, NIU=Niue, CK=Cook Islands, CKM=Cook Islands Māori, FP=French Polynesia, AUS=Australs, SOC=Societies, TAH=Tahiti, TUA=Tuamotus, MQS=Marquesas, MNG=Mangareva, PIT=Pitcain group, EAS=Easter Island, HAW=Hawai‘i, NZ=New Zealand, NZM=New Zealand Māori

Scientific Taxonomy

Tholymis tillarga (Fabricius, 1798)
SYNONYMS: Libellula tillarga Fabricius, 1798; Libellula pallida Palisot de Beauvois, 1805; Libellula bimaculata Desjardins, 1835

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; ARTHROPODA; ATELOCERATA; HEXAPODA; INSECTA; PTERYGOTA; Odonata; Anisoptera; LIBELLULIDAE

Vouchers & References

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: specimens 9/1937, C.E.Clarke, reported Wise (1980); specimens, 1950-51, in Lieftinck 1953. Atiu: fieldsighting, NBSAP visit, GMcC. Pukapuka: specimens+photo, 2/2004, rare over Taro pondfields, ID GMcC.

References:
Special Reference: Wise, 1980: Records of South Pacific Dragonflies (Hexapoda: Odonata). Rec. Auckland Inst. Mus. 17:175-178

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zD02, zupD04a

Web Resources

Citation Information

McCormack, Gerald (2007) Cook Islands Biodiversity Database, Version 2007.2. Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, Rarotonga. Online at http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org.
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