Urothemis signata

When visiting the lowland marshes of Van Long Nature Reserve at the first weekend of September I had a chance to acquaint myself with some apparently common marshland species that until then I had not seen. One of these was robust and red Urothemis signata. I found the males in low numbers sitting on the tips of stalks in the water, and females nearby amongst the fields or in the top of the trees. There they could be identified easily on the basis of the wing markings, characterized by a dark dot in an amber field. It is a widely spread species, with several subspecies, occurring from China to Pakistan to Borneo. It is only fitting that it also occurs in Viet Nam.

Urothemis signata, male

Urothemis signata, female

Another female in hand, showing robust vulvar lamina and the wing markings

And this is what she looks like from underneath