- Animals
- ›Arthropods
- ›Hexapods
- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Dragonflies and Damselflies
- ›Dragonflies
- ›Libelluloidea
- ›Skimmers
- ›Tholymis

Twister
Tholymis tillarga
Tholymis tillarga, the coral-tailed cloudwing, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found from tropical West Africa to Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Common names include old world twister, evening skimmer, crepuscular darter, and foggy-winged twister. It is a migrant with a permanent presence in humid parts of the tropics. It breeds in standing water-bodies; and prefers weedy ponds, swamps and lakes. They are active at dusk and dawn, as well...
From the article Tholymis tillarga on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
It is a medium sized dragonfly with reddish eyes, yellowish red thorax and coral red abdomen. Its wings are transparent; but hind wings have a golden-brown patch in the base, bordered by a cloudy-white patch. Female is brown and lacks the cloudy-white patch in the hind-wings. It is a migrant with a permanent presence in humid parts of the tropics. It breeds in standing water-bodies; and prefers weedy ponds, swamps and lakes. They are active at dusk and dawn, as well as during cloudy days.
Wikipedia: “Description and habitat”
In human culture
The genus name Tholymis is possibly derived from the Greek θώραξ (thōrax, "thorax" or "chest") and λυγαῖος (lygaios, "shadowy" or "murky"), together with the common dragonfly suffix -themis. The name may refer to the dark-coloured thorax of males of Tholymis citrina. The derivation of the species name tillarga is unknown.
Wikipedia: “Etymology”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Tholymis tillarga in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 114098.