About Anax tristis Hagen, 1867
Anax tristis, commonly known as the black emperor or magnificent emperor, is an African dragonfly species belonging to the family Aeshnidae. It reaches a total length of up to around 120 mm (4.7 in) and a wingspan of up to 135 mm (5.3 in), making it one of the largest dragonfly species in the world, and the largest dragonfly in Africa. This common species has been recorded across most of sub-Saharan Africa, with confirmed records from Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. There are unconfirmed potential records for Burundi and Ethiopia. It has been recorded once each as a vagrant in the Maldives and in Oman. It inhabits pools, waterholes, dams, marshes, and other generally small, standing, temporary water bodies, mostly occurring in open habitats like savannas, though it can also be found in forest openings.
