Pseudagrion melanicterum, Coenagrionidae, is a member of a gigantic genus currently comprising 172 species across Africa, Asia, and Oceania, even more numerous than the American Argia (about 140). There are 71 in Africa divided into two groups, A and B, with at least 18 in Ghana.
The Farmbush Sprite belongs to group A; "The Pseudagrion species of group A are mostly slender damselflies (zygopterans), rather small to fairly large in size (hindwing 17 to 29 mm), black-coloured with colourful highlights on the head, thorax, and abdominal segments 7 to 10," as stated in Dijkstra & Clausnitzer (2014).
Pseudagrion melanicterum, the colourful highlights are surprising to me: yellow or green on the head and thorax for the postocular spots and thoracic stripes; beige for the distal end of S7, S8, and S9. I had never seen this type of colour on a mature male Pseudagrion. Surprisingly, some of the coloured spots on females are blue.
When combining the coloration and the shape of the anal appendages, there is no possibility of confusion with any other Zygoptera in Ghana.
Left, anal appendages Pseudagrion melanicterum, Dijkstra Clausnitzer, 2014
Note the upper notch in the posterior part of the yellow or green metathoracic episternum; this notch sometimes continues as a small black line down to the black dot carried by this episternum.
Selys (1876) measures its abdomen at 32–34 mm. Its total length is approximately 40 mm.
We encountered it on dark forest streams but also on a deep, sparsely wooded stream in an open area alongside numerous other odonates, including Chlorocypha curta and pyriformosa, Elattoneura nigra, Pseudagrion sjoestedti, kersteni, and isidromorai, Trithemis grouti and arteriosa, Tetrathemis camerunensis, Orthetrum chrysostigma—all of this over a stretch of about twelve meters!
It has a wide distribution in tropical Africa; it is found from Senegal to Uganda, reaching as far south as Zambia and further west to northern Angola.
IUCN Red List.
We encountered an isolated female, escaped from a tandem, which flew away immediately... She displays the characteristic final segments of females, as can be verified on the tandem below.
Étymology of Pseudagrion melanicterum
Pseudagrion (Endersby & Fliedner, 2015) from Ancient Greek pseudo-—false, erroneous, and agrion, this, as Selys (1876) wrote, to testify to the difficulty of separating this genus from Agrion; "les Pseudagrions semblent très voisins des vrais Agrions - the Pseudagrions seem very close to the true Agrions." Agrion, from the Greek agrios—wild, living in the fields.
Melanicterum from the Greek melas for black, dark, and icteros, which means yellow, simply to recall the colors of this odonate.
Pseudagrion melanicterum male, Ghana, Twifo Atti-Morkwa, 20/01/2026
Endersby Ian & Fliedner Heinrich, (2015). The Naming of Australia’s Dragonflies, Ian Endersby & Heinrich Fliedner, Busybird publishing.
Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra & Viola Clausnitzer, 2014. The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Eastern Africa - Handbook for all Odonata from Sudan to Zimbabwe – Studies in Afrotopical Zoology, vol. 298. Tervuren : Royal Museum for Central Africa
Selys, 1876. Synopsis des Agrionines, 5ᵉ légion : Agrion (suite). Le grand genre Agrion, p. 492.