About Anax ephippiger (Burmeister, 1839)
This is a large dragonfly species with greenish-yellow eyes. Its thorax is olivaceous-brown, and is paler along the sides. Its wings are transparent, with an amber-yellow patch present. The abdomen is ochreous, marked with azure-blue and reddish-brown. For segment 2, the dorsum is bright blue in males, and pale grey-blue in females, while the sides are pale green for both sexes. Segments 3 through 7 are olivaceous-yellow, with irregular reddish-brown stripes along the mid-dorsum and narrow black apical annules. Segments 8 and 9 have a broad mid-dorsal blackish-brown stripe that encloses a pair of triangular yellow apical spots. Segment 10 is bright yellow, with its base and mid-dorsum broadly colored black. Females are otherwise similar in appearance to males. Its natural habitats include shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs. It breeds in shallow tanks and marshes. It is a rare long-distance migrant to the British Isles, and can occasionally be seen there even during winter. It is currently confirmed to be found in Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Kuwait, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; its presence in Burundi is considered possible. It was first recorded in Malta in 1957, and has been recorded there every few years since, when it can be seen migrating in large numbers. It has never been recorded breeding in the Maltese archipelago. It is increasingly recorded in coastal Southern England, and has been found as far as 10 miles (16 km) inland; one individual was seen at Knepp Wildland on 17 November 2021, which marked the 5th confirmed record of the species in that region for that year.
