Orthemis schmidti

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Orthemis schmidti, the red-tailed skimmer, is a dragonfly in the Orthemis genus. It was described in 1950 by Karl Friedrich Buchholz from a specimen collected in Peru. The head is reddish-brown with an olive-ochre face and a reddish border; the mouthparts have reddish-brown edges and a green spot on the lower lip. The thorax is dark reddish-brown with a slight purple shine and has yellow lines and spots on the sides; the prothorax is reddish-brown. Front legs are dark ocher, back legs dark brown-red, and the feet are black. The abdomen is sturdy and tapers toward the end, with yellowish sides and a long dark stripe along the midline. The wings are clear with a brown spot at the tip and dark veins; one wing has one large cell, the other two cells, plus a zigzag vein. The hind wings have rows of small edge cells forming a bendy loop. Observations place this species in northern South America, the Caribbean, and Central America.