Royal Tigertail Dragonfly - Parasynthemis regina

FAMILY SYNTHEMISTIDAE

This page contains information and pictures about Royal Tigertail Dragonflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Male, body length 55mm

The dragonfly is black in colour with yellow patterns, the typical Tigertail colours. It has the board central yellow stripe on the front of thorax and board yellow band on 7th abdominal segment.



We found this dragonfly in Karawatha Forest around Jan and Feb 2008. There are the small ponds area known as Frog Hollow. Those ponds were dry or almost dry in the last four years. It was full in 2008, first time within five years. We just had large amount of rain during Jan and Feb 2008 in Brisbane, although we were still in level 5 water restriction.



We had been there many times for the last few years, but never saw this dragonfly. This was the first time we saw them there. They are locally common there in Jan and Feb 2008. We found many of them on Jan 2009 in Daisy Hill Buhot Creek too.



Under full sun light, the dragonfly fly in fast to medium speed above water, hovering above water from time to time, resting on grass occasionally.

Reference:
1. The Australian Dragonflies - CSIRO, Watson, Theisinger & Abbey,1991, p230.
2. A Field Guide to Dragonflies of South East Queensland - Ric Nattrass, 2006, p72.
3. The Complete Field Guide to Dragonflies of Australia - CSIRO, Günther Theischinger and John Hawking, 2006, p202.