Orthetrum japonicum
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Orthetrum japonicum is a species of libellulid dragonfly endemic to Japan. Orthetrum japonicum was first scientifically described as Libellula japonica by Philip Reese Uhler in 1858 from Hakodate, Japan, based on a male specimen only, making it one of the first Japanese odonates to be recognized and described by Europeans.
In 1894, Robert McLachlan described a variant of the species from Sichuan Province, China, which he dubbed O. japonicum var. internum. He revisited the Chinese dragonfly two years later and raised it to full species level, naming it Orthetrum internum. The newly christened species lasted until 1909, when Friedrich Ris declared the physical differences McLachlan had noted too slight, and lumped it back in with O. japonicum, making it a subspecies. This classification endured throughout the 20th century, although Katsuyoshi Ishida, writing in the 1990s, thought internum a discrete species on the basis of its larvae. A 2012 paper published in the journal Tombo revising the taxonomy of Japanese odonates with genetic techniques looked at the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of several species, including Orthetrum japonicum.... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report an Orthetrum japonicum sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 86 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report an Orthetrum japonicum in Nikko National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–April and July–December, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Orthetrum japonicum sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Orthetrum japonicum sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Orthetrum japonicum is recorded against all the insects logged in Nikko National Park (7 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
