Mountain Malachite (Chlorolestes fasciatus)

Cover photo by Gerhard Diedericks.

Find the Mountain Malachite in the FBIS database (Freshwater Biodiversity Information System) here.

Family Synlestidae

Identification

Medium to Large size

Length up to 54mm; Wingspan attains 64mm.

Male Mountain Malachites occur in two colour forms. About 70% of males develop striking black and white bands in the wings. The other 30% or so of males do not develop these wing markings.

The Mountain Malachite is easily confused with a handful of other green malachite species, especially the ones that also develop the black and white wing bands. The Mountain Malachite is closest to the Forest Malachite (Chlorolestes tessellatus), from which it differs by having a thin, yellow humeral stripe on the thorax. This stripe peters out before the wing bases. The Forest Malachite shows a broad, yellow humeral stripe that reaches the wing bases. The Mountain Malachite is also slightly smaller and generally occurs in more open habitats than the Forest Malachite.

Click here for more details on identification.

Habitat

The Mountain Malachite frequents grassland streams and rivers in hilly or mountainous areas. It favours running streams with pools, and with fringing reeds, bushes, tall grasses and rocks. The Mountain Malachite is usually found in open, sunny environs. However, along the coast and in the northern parts of its range the Mountain Malachite also occurs in forested habitats.

The Mountain Malachite can be found from sea level up to 2400m above sea level.

Behaviour

The Mountain Malachite is mostly seen as it sits on a grass stem or branch over the water and often spends long periods at rest. When perched it hangs vertically with its wings outstretched. Banded form males are very striking and conspicuous, and are dominant over un-banded males.

The Mountain Malachite is most active from October to May (See Phenology below).

Status and Conservation

The Mountain Malachite is a common species where it occurs. It is listed as of Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Mountain Malachite is a fairly hardy species that sometimes inhabits slightly degraded streams and occasionally makes use of farm dams adjoining its usual habitat.

Distribution

The Mountain Malachite is endemic to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Its distribution ranges along the length of the escarpment from the Soutpansberg in Limpopo, down through Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal through to the Eastern and Western Cape provinces. The Mountain Malachite also inhabits the mountainous areas of Gauteng and the eastern Free State. This species is considered rare in the Western Cape.

Below is a map showing the distribution of records for Mountain Malachite in the OdonataMAP database as at February 2020.

Below is a map showing the distribution of records for Mountain Malachite in the OdonataMAP database as of December 2024.

The next map below is an imputed map, produced by an interpolation algorithm, which attempts to generate a full distribution map from the partial information in the map above. This map will be improved by the submission of records to the OdonataMAP section of the Virtual Museum.

Ultimately, we will produce a series of maps for all the odonata species in the region. The current algorithm is a new algorithm. The objective is mainly to produce “smoothed” maps that could go into a field guide for odonata. This basic version of the algorithm (as mapped above) does not make use of “explanatory variables” (e.g. altitude, terrain roughness, presence of freshwater — we will be producing maps that take these variables into account soon). Currently, it only makes use of the OdonataMAP records for the species being mapped, as well as all the other records of all other species. The basic maps are “optimistic” and will generally show ranges to be larger than what they probably are.

These maps use the data in the OdonataMAP section of the Virtual Museum, and also the database assembled by the previous JRS funded project, which was led by Professor Michael Samways and Dr KD Dijkstra.

Phenology

The next two graphs shows how the occurrence of Mountain Malachites varies within the year, i.e. the phenology. There are only 425 records in the database for this species, so these results ought to be definitive. The first plot shows the number of records in each pentade, five-day periods, which start on 1 July and end on 30 June the following year. The maximum number of records in a pentade is 25, in mid-February. The blue line is generated by a smoother, an algorithm which aims to separate the “signal” from the “noise”, and shows the pattern of seasonality for this species. The second plot shows only the blue line, and it is scaled to lie between zero and one, for easy comparison between species.

The phenology plot shows that, over the range of the Mountain Malachite, this damselfly is in flight from November to April, with December to March being the months of most frequent occurrence. The peak abundance is in February. There seems to be a long, six-month build up to this peak, starting in September. The decrease in abundance is steeper, from March to mid-June. Between late-June and the end of August, the cold winter months, there are only two records for this species.

This might well be a species for which two altitude classes could be defined, with phenology plots for each altitude. To do this reliably, larger sample sizes would be helpful.

Further Resources

The use of photographs by Gerhard Diedericks is acknowledged. All other Photographs by Ryan Tippett.

Mountain Malachite Chlorolestes fasciatus Burmeister, 1839

Other common names: Bergmalagiet (Afrikaans).

Recommended citation format: Loftie-Eaton M; Navarro R; Tippett RM; Underhill L. 2025. Mountain Malachite Chlorolestes fasciatus.  Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2020/04/23/moutain-malachite-chlorolestes-fasciatus/

References: Tarboton, M; Tarboton, W. (2019). A Guide to the Dragonflies & Damselflies of South Africa. Struik Nature.

Samways, MJ. (2008). Dragonflies and Damselflies of South Africa. Pensoft

Samways, MJ. (2016). Manual of Freshwater Assessment for South Africa: Dragonfly Biotic Index.Suricata 2. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria