Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Philoganga vetusta - the big, the bold, the beautiful

When I first noticed the Ochre Titan in Tam Dao I was shocked by its robustness. This is a very large damsel and very strongly built. I ran into it again in Xuan Son and apparently it is not all that rare in spring. On 17 and 18 May I saw them in Tam Dao from low down up to 350m asl in good numbers, meaning at least 15 or so. Here are a few shots.

The mature male, with extensive orange to the abdomen and ochre to the flanks.

The massive female, sometimes whitish, sometimes ochre

And another male, maybe immature? The wings look old and worn. Is this pruinosity and this in fact a very mature specimen?

1 comment:

  1. Very strange species. I've seen some Philoganga maybe robusta in Guizhou, all very young. Amazing and huge damselfly.

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