Dragonfly ID please

[Tiggrx]

Can't quite decide which species this is. Help please! It was by a pond near the River Thames in South Buckinghamshire.

Thanks
Aaron

[MetalMoth]

Hmmm well I am very new to ID'ing dragonflies and I do find them tricky. I am not sure what this one is but the best match I could come up with was a female Black-tailed Skimmer. However the colours on this one don't seem to match up that well to your photo. So this is not a very confident ID!

I am interested to see what the experts think!

[Tiggrx]

Thanks Metalmoth,

I know what you mean about the colours. I wondered whether it had only recently emerged and wasn't showing it's true colours yet.

[JRsbugs]

Someone posted a similar one not long ago, turned out it was a female Black-tailed Skimmer which had lost it's scales.

Janet

[Tiggrx]

Thanks Janet,

I shall call it a Black-tailed Skimmer then unless someone else says otherwise...

[Michael A]

Looks like a possible female Black Tail Skimmer although they don't frequently hang

[Bellow]

Hi Tiggrx,
With ref your dragonfly,I,m sticking with B.T.S. not a female, but an "immo" male.my reasoning is as follows;
1 - the claspers at the tail,are slightly curved outwards,in the female they curve inwards.
2 - the top of the eye is pale blue,which turns a darker blue in mature male, it is light brown,turning to dark brown in a mature female. The clear wing and black "T"stigma"confirms B.T.S.
"interesting creatures" these dragons.!!!!
Roly.

[RoyW]

The photo does show a Black-tailed Skimmer, and it is a female.

The slightly unusual colouration is because it has started to develop the pruinescence that is seen in mature males (a powdery blue secretion that forms on the outside of the exoskeleton). Unlike butterflies and moths which have scales on their wings, dragonflies do not have scales that can be lost in old individuals. The colours do often change considerably as individuals age though.
The appendages are those of a female (two widely spaced appendages, with a third broader, but shorter, appendage between them in Libellulid's like skimmers).

[Tiggrx]

Thanks for the extra information guys