Northern emerald
species of insect
The northern emerald (Somatochlora arctica) is a species of emerald dragonfly found in northern and middle Eurasia. The species was first described in 1840 from Scandinavia. It is a relatively small dragonfly, just 4 to 5 centimetres (1.6 to 2.0 in) long, and is recognizable by its hairy thorax, dark abdomen, and bright green eyes. The males have narrowly waisted abdomens, while the females have straight ones; the females are also recognizable by the two lateral yellow spots behind the thorax. Northern emeralds pass two years as larvae in sphagnum-rich bog pools before emerging as adults which hunt above peat bogs, wet meadows, and open woodlands. Despite being assessed as a least-concern species by the IUCN, northern emeralds are threatened by habitat loss caused by human activity, and climate change is expected to exacerbate the problem. The northern emerald is found from Japan and the Kamchatka Peninsula through much of Russia. It is abundant throughout Fennoscandia, and is also well-known from the Alps and the Scottish Highlands. Its distribution in lowland Europe is sparse, but the dragonflies can be hard to find and record.
Taxonomy
The northern emerald is known scientifically as Somatochlora arctica and is placed in the family Corduliidae.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Northern emerald” as species of insect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q674064. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1840.
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This entry incorporates text from “Northern emerald” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.