The fulvous forest skimmer, Neurothemis fulvia, is a medium-sized dragonfly found in parts of Asia. Its name fits its warm rusty-brown color, especially in males, which can look like a flash of copper moving through a forest opening.
Males usually have reddish-brown bodies and broad dark reddish wings with clear tips. Females are more variable, often showing amber-yellow wings with darker rays or markings. Those clear wing tips are useful for telling this species apart from some other red dragonflies.
Fulvous forest skimmers live around wet forests, forest edges, canopy gaps, marshy areas, ponds, and streams. They often perch on shrubs, sticks, fallen logs, or low vegetation where they can watch for flying insects.
As adults, they are predators that catch mosquitoes, flies, and other small insects in flight. Their aquatic nymphs are predators too, living in water and feeding on tiny animals before climbing out to transform into winged adults.
This dragonfly often appears in groups where the habitat is right. Wet forests, shaded ponds, and clean marshy places are important not only for this species, but for many other insects, frogs, and birds that share the same habitats.