Waterfall Redspot
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© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Austropetalia
- Species
- patricia
- Family
- Austropetalliidae
- Super Family
- Aeshnoidea
- Suborder
- Epiproctophora
- Order
- Odonata
- Class
- Insecta
- Subphylum
- Uniramia
- Phylum
- Arthopoda
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Size Range
- 7-8 cm
Introduction
The Waterfall Redspot is one of the most beautiful Australian dragonflies.
Identification
The Waterfall Redspot has a reddish-brown head and body with small yellow markings and distinctive red-spotted wings. These spots, and the fact that it is usually seen near waterfalls in the spring, give this dragonfly its name.
The larvae are wide and flat, and have distinctive humps on their legs and square or rounded lumps on the side of the body.
When the Waterfall Redspot was discovered, it was considered to be identical with a species known only from South America. Even though it is now clear that the species is unique to Australia, its close relationship to some South American species demonstrates the dragonflies' early origins on the supercontinent Gondwana before it split into today's continents 200 million years ago.
Habitat
The Waterfall Redspot lives in splash zones of waterfalls, sphagnum swamps and small trickles in mountainous areas. They can live out of water in damp areas between rocks and on the ledges of waterfalls.
Distribution
The Waterfall Redspot is found in New South Wales, in the Blue Mountains, Watagan Mountains, possibly Barrington Tops and New England National Park, and occasionally in Sydney.
