In summer, dragonflies with a small fan at the tail can be seen around ponds in urban parks The Japanese name is Fan dragonfly and the scientific name is Sinictinogomphus clavatus.

Fan dragonfly used to be only one species around Osaka City. But now there are two species, because Taiwan Fan dragonfly (scientific name: Ictinogomphus pertinax) has been added, which used to be distributed in the south, because of the global warming. The first record of it in Honshu was 1987. It is a little smaller than the native one, and the color on tail fan is different.

It rarely comes to the shore of the pond like the photo below, but it is often perched on plants or sticks that come out of the water surface of the pond. Binoculars are required to distinguish between species in large ponds.

The males present territory behavior on the pond, waiting for the females to come. When different species of dragonflies and males of the same species approach, they will fight for territory. It is also interesting to see the survival competition of such dragonflies.