Part of the attraction of Somatochloras thus seems to be that they epitomize wilderness, wildness, exclusiveness, elusiveness. Part of the attraction also has to be the fact that they are lovely insects. To me they are the Ferraris of the Odonata, sleek and elegant. S. ensigera is one of the prettiest examples of the genus, with conspicuous yellow marks on the sides of the thorax and abdomen.
Yellow markings chrome yellow, tending to gamboge.
His description was based on a male, collected by E.J. Osler in Bear Creek Canyon, Jefferson County, Colorado, at 8000 feet altitude. Walker eventually synonymized charadraea with ensigera in 1925. Until that time, however, the two lived separate lives in scientific circles. In any event, both ensigera and ensigera in the guise of charadraea were for some time considered likely to be insects of mountain torrents, having been collected in mountainous states. His first collection was taken as the charadraea hovered over riffles in an area where Flat Creek passed through a small woodlot.