Striped dragonfly (Sympetrum striolatum) flies around for a long time in autumn and will often be the last dragonfly we see before winter arrives. The adult is typically 35 to 44 mm long, with a wingspan of about 5.5 cm.
The adult male striped dragonfly is most reliably identified by two broad pale yellow bands on the side of the thorax. It has a slender orange-red abdomen, which is never as chunky in shape as in the males of other dragonfly species. Its legs are black with clear yellow stripes along the femora and tibiae. The orange mark at the base of the wings is very small in this species and limited to a part of the wing near the body.
Adult females are much harder to distinguish from the females of most other dragonfly species that live here, as a dirty yellow body with a pattern of thin black stripes and paired spots on the abdomen is also characteristic of other dragonflies in our country. The most reliable distinction from other species is by the shape of a protrusion (the vulvar lobe) on the ventral side at the end of the abdomen. This lobe in the female striped dragonfly has the shape of a distinctly elongated triangle (the lower side is very long), and the tip of the lobe is also somewhat elongated.
The striped dragonfly inhabits standing bodies of water, but it is not at all picky when choosing a suitable habitat, so larvae can also live in slowly flowing waterways and even in water bodies where marine and freshwater mix (brackish water).
We have already mentioned that the striped dragonfly is among the most persistent fliers in terms of the length of its flight period. We see the first adults flying already in June, and we can regularly observe them until October, sometimes November or even December.
