Oxygastra curtisii
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The orange-spotted emerald, Oxygastra curtisii, is a dragonfly in the family Idomacromiidae. It is the only species of the genus Oxygastra. The species is native to western and southern Europe, where it inhabits slow-flowing rivers and streams with well-vegetated banks. It is a bronzy-green dragonfly with bright green eyes and a row of yellow-orange spots along the abdomen.
Orange-spotted emerald is a medium-sized dragonfly, about 53 mm in length. It has bright green eyes and a bronzy-green body with a series of yellow to orange spots along the upper surface of the abdomen, giving rise to its common name. The tenth abdominal segment of the male is prolonged into a downward-curving point, a characteristic noted by Selys when he established the genus Oxygastra in 1871.
The wings are transparent, although females often have a pale amber wash at their bases. The sexes differ in the shape of the terminal abdominal segments, with females having a shorter abdomen and a small vulvar scale used during egg-laying.
Orange-spotted emerald is native to western and southern Europe, where it occurs from the Iberian Peninsula east to Italy and parts... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porto | 🇵🇹 Portugal |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-Spotted Emerald sighting in Porto on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 377th most-seen of the 498 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-Spotted Emerald in Porto on a given day, against under 5% in August to May, the lowest months. Those are among Porto's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 140 mm in January.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Orange-Spotted Emerald sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Porto, in our data
Porto is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Orange-Spotted Emerald sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Odonata
The closest relatives of the Orange-Spotted Emerald that you can see in Porto (order Odonata, Dragonflies and Damselflies) are Copper Demoiselle (about 10%), Keeled Skimmer (about 10%) and Large Red Damselfly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Orange-Spotted Emerald is recorded against all the insects logged in Porto (9 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.
