black sea red data book - Department of Biology

Calopteryx virgo - complex
Synonyms: Libellula virgo Linnaeus, 1758:245; Calopteryx virgo Selys & Hagen,
1850:134; Calopteryx virgo race meridionalis Selys, 1873:509; Calopteryx virgo
meridionalis Capra, 1945:254.
Common names: Engl: Beautiful demoiselle; Russ: Krasotka-devushka yuzhnaya;
Turk: Buyuk kiz bocegi.
Orde ODONATA
Family CALOFTERYGIDAE
Taxonomic description. Total body length 49-54 mm, length of hindwings 31-37
mm. Eyes hemispherical, relatively small, distant, situated laterally on the head. Both
wing pairs similar in shape. Wings uniformly coloured or their basal region narrowly
transparent. Pronounced sexual dimorphism in colour pattern. Male: body metallic
blue; wings dark-brown, with shining deep blue veins. Ventrum of terminal segments
of abdomen largely live red. Female: body dull dark green-brownish; wings dull
brown, veins dull metallic. Abdomen slender.
IUCN Status
World level: VU
Black Sea Regional level: VU
Subregion level: VU
Distribution. A transpalearctic, polytypic species with several subspecies. In the
West Mediterranean area, North Africa, South France, and the Iberian Peninsula, a
semi (?) species, C. meridionalis occurs, which looks more or less like some
populations in Bulgaria that have been designated by that name, but extend to the
Marmara region of Asia Minor and the Strandzha Mts. These populations are
therefore more probably linked to a subspecies that occurs from Greece eastwards
through Anatolia, C. virgo festiva. East of Trabzon, this is replaced by yet another
robust subspcies, C. virgo feminalis, which probably extends along most of the east
coast of the Black Sea. Along the north coast, C. virgo virgo is expected to occur.
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