Critically Endangered
Libellula angelina
Libellula angelina
Libellula angelina is a skimmer in the family Libellulidae (order Odonata), recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The bekko tombo is a golden to rusty-brown dragonfly, with a dark stripe down the centre of the abdomen and a distinctive pattern of dark markings on its wings.
Like other members of the family Libellulidae, this dragonfly has a relatively short, broad abdomen, and its body is distinctly shorter than its wingspan.
Range and habitat
The bekko tombo occurs in central and northern China, Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and offshore islands) and Korea. It inhabits old and stable ponds with moderate plant growth in lowland hill areas. Libellula angelina, also known as bekko tombo, is a dragonfly in the family Libellulidae, native to China and Japan.
The species has been protected in Japan since 1993, and efforts by various NGOs are ongoing to preserve and reconstitute suitable breeding habitats.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Females typically begin to lay eggs in water immediately after copulation, often guarded by their mate.
In crisis
It is under threat by rapid loss of the ponds and other small water bodies it uses as habitat, and is currently classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. Introduced predators such as the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) have also had an impact. Current population is estimated at less than 5,000 individuals, and the species has been classified as critically endangered by the IUCN.
Libellula angelina is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Libellula angelina, Wikidata item Q302239. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
