English name:  Scarce / Desert Bluetail

Size:  Medium-sized damselfly (3-3.5 cm).
 

Habitat:  Still waters in open landscapes. Usually with aquatic vegetation. Also occurs in brackish water.

Distribution: From northeast Africa through the Middle East to Central Asia. Restricted to arid regions.

In Israel it flies in the south and northward along the Syrian-African rift to the northern Jordan Valley.
Season:  Flies throughout the year (according to data from Syria and Iraq).  

Identification features:
Male-  The sides of the thorax are green (never blue, but there are intermediate forms), shoulder stripes (antehumeral) are usually narrow.
The upper part of the abdomen is dark, the eighth abdominal segment is entirely blue. In the second abdominal segment, the transition between the black upper part and the green lower part is not wavy but straight, and toward the rear end there is an "intrusion" of the green part into the black, and then a black "spike" descends into the green part (see t

Females- in the genus Ischnura the females are very similar and distinguishing between them is difficult and not always possible.

Similar species:
Male- all members of the genus Ischnura, as well as the Ischnura of the Nile, are very similar to one another, and one must look closely to identify with certainty.

Close-up image of the second abdominal segment showing its unique pattern.