The brilliant emerald, Somatochlora metallica, is a middle-sized species of dragonfly. It is the largest and greenest of the Somatochlora species; long.
S. metallica is found across most of northern Eurasia where it is the commonest of its genus. In Great Britain, it is locally common in south east England and has a very restricted population in Scotland.
The East Asian Somatochlora vera, scientifically described in 1914 by Aleksandr Bartenev based on a specimen from Ussuri, Siberia (and later also reported in northern China), is typically treated as part of S. metallica, but has also been considered a synonym of the East Asian S. exuberata.