Help required to ID a dragonfly

[Jacqueline Burrell]

Does anyone know what this is and whether it is a male or female. Seen 50 kilometres south of Suez on the Red Sea coast.

[Christian Brinkman]

It's definately a darter (Sympetrum).
My guess would be Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) due to the spread yellow on the hind wing and blue lower part of the eye, I don't know if there are any similar species in Egypt though..
Whether it is a female or male can't be said from this possition, if you have a picture of the side of the abdomen you can.

[Jacqueline Burrell]

We have three daters recorded in Egypt: Sympetrum fonscolombii, fusca, and sinaiticum.

[RoyW]

It is an immature male Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii).

It is possible to sex it as a male from the first photo by looking at the appendages at the tip of the abdomen (2 closely paired appendages in a male, 3 appendages in a female, with the shorter middle one seperating the other 2).

S. sinaiticum would show a short dark bar on the side of the addomen segments near the thorax - I've never heard of S. fusca though, but have found Sypecma fusca named as Sympetrum on the web.