About Somatochlora metallica (Vander Linden, 1825)
The brilliant emerald, with the scientific name Somatochlora metallica, is a medium-sized species of dragonfly. It is the largest and greenest of all Somatochlora species, reaching a total body length of 50 to 55 millimetres, or 2.0 to 2.2 inches. S. metallica occurs across most of northern Eurasia, where it is the most common member of its genus. In Great Britain, it is locally common in southeast England, and has a very restricted population in Scotland. A separate East Asian taxon, Somatochlora vera, was first scientifically described in 1914 by Aleksandr Bartenev from a specimen collected in Ussuri, Siberia. It has also been reported to occur in northern China. This taxon is typically treated as part of S. metallica, but it has also been considered a synonym of the East Asian species S. exuberata.
