An eventful day in Xuan Son National Park and surroundings

Saturday October 12 we visited Xuan Son NP. More about this is to follow soon. We had some great birds and some fantastic dragonflies, but for now let me post two biggies. The first was caught when on a dirt road parallel to Road 32, while circumventing the park, I noticed a gomphid by the roadside. It turned out to be a lamelligomphus, without humps on S8 or dorsal tooth on the superior appendages, so I was thrilled to have found another of the enigma Lamelligomphids. But close inspectio nat home showed that even if it was not L. camelus, it also was not the species caught before at Tam Dao! A third species! Here a few photos. The specimen keys out as L. hainanensis, especially due to the absence of a thumb like process on the anterior hamulus. But there is something else intriguing about this specimen and that is that the dorsal stripes are connected to the collar, something to my knowledge never seen in the genus. The appendages by the way are also different from my other enigma species, without the teeth on the inside, shorter inferiors, not projecting clearly beyond the superiors and without the leaflike tip.

And while at dusk at a bridge in the park, all of a sudden 15 or so large Aeshnids started swarming under it. At first I thought these might be the recently described Planaeschna guenterpetersi and who read this entry in its first version will have seen the species tentatively identified as Planaeschna sp. But in fact appendages and coloration are quite different. A day spent in the books led to the conclusion that this was in fact Boyeria karubei, a species described by Yokoi in 2002 for Laos. A first record of this genus in Vietnam. I will explain a little more on its ID in a new entry.

All suggestions on the Lamelligomphus are welcome!

Lamelligomphus sp., male

Compare shape of tip of appendages with the enigma Lamelligomphus

Same

Note lack of teeth on the inside of he superiors and no extension of the inferiors away from the superiors

This is weird, collar and dorsal stripes connected

Facial pattern with split yellow line over frons

Comparison with previous enigma, note differences in appendages

Penile organ of present specimen, divergent

Enigma specimen, very different

Scan of the Boyeria karubei, male

Boyeria karubei, male, note brownish face, but also extensive singular markings on the abdominal segments and all green eyes

S10 and appendages in lateral view

In dorsal view, not concave shape of epiproct

And the same in ventral view

A very reddish-brown face indeed