The Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum, is a European and Asian dragonfly

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

. It occurs nearly all over Europe except northern UK and Scandinavia, to the east the range extends to Kashmir and Mongolia.

The adult male has a blue abdomen with a black tip and transparent wings, and the female has a yellow (later: brown) body with black bands along the abdomen and transparent wings. Even the immature males look that way.

This species has expanded its range, assisted by the creation of gravel pit

Gravel pit

Gravel pit is the term for an open cast working for extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may fill naturally with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either as nature reserves, or as amenity areas...

s which give it the extensive open unvegetated areas it prefers. It was first recorded in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 in Essex in 1934. It is decreasing rapidly in the Maltese islands

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

.