A new dragonfly and a new damselfly

A friend introduced me to an institute in the suburbs of Hanoi that has a 1 hectare large forested garden with several small ponds. This place is home to Mortonagrion aborense, a damselfly known from surrounding countries, but new to Vietnam. Although it rained intensely for most of the time I was there, I did manage to see 3 males. Here is one male, not the best of pictures, I am afraid.

Mortonagrion aborense, male

While there I noticed a small dark dragonfly sitting on the tip of a lotus flower stalk. It turned out to be a beautiful male of Aethriamantha aethra. Sebastien Delonglee mentions that this species was only added to the Vietnamese list in 2011, when it was found in the south of the country. Shortly after, Sebastien also located it at a pond in the suburbs of Hanoi, but sadly that pond was lost to construction. Maybe it is indeed, as Sebastien suggested, not so rare, but just under recorded. Nevertheless, a splendid surprise.

Aethriamantha aethra, male