Lestes elatus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Lestes elatus is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae, the spreadwings. It is known commonly as the emerald spreadwing. It is native to India, Thailand and Sri Lanka. It is a medium sized damselfly with greenish blue eyes. Thorax is brown on dorsum, changing to yellowish-brown on the sides. The dorsum of thorax is marked with a pair of narrow ante-humeral metallic green stripes expanded outwardly at the abdominal end like a hockey stick. There are three tiny black spots on the lateral sides. The brown color of the thorax will change to bluish-white due to pruinescence in adults. Its abdomen is pale yellowish brown at the sides in the young,
marked broadly on dorsum with metallic green, up to segment 8. The basal half of segment 9 is black and the apical half is yellowish brown. Segment 10 is yellowish brown. The yellowish-brown color of the abdomen will change to bluish-white due to pruinescence in the adults. Anal appendages are creamy yellow, broadly tipped with black in the young; entirely black in the adults. It can be easily distinguished from other species of this genus by its unique metallic thoracic stripes.
Female is similar to the male... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
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More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Emerald Spreadwing sighting in Chennai on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 230th most-seen of the 376 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March and September–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Emerald Spreadwing in Chennai on a given day, against under 5% in January and April–August, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Asian Emerald Spreadwing sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 4 cities where we can rate Asian Emerald Spreadwing sightings, Chennai ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Thrissur (India, about 10%).
Same order: Odonata
The closest relatives of the Asian Emerald Spreadwing that you can see in Chennai (order Odonata, Dragonflies and Damselflies) are Chalky Percher (about 40%), Wandering Midget (about 30%) and Coromandel Marsh Dart (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Asian Emerald Spreadwing is recorded against all the insects logged in Chennai (10 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
