Saturday May 24 I drove to Huu Lien Nature Reserve. In the heat one of my tires blew out while I was parked along the road, presumably. It was quite a thing to replace the tire in the blazing sun, but the day made up for all that.
I had discussed with Sebastien the lack of Rhyothemis species in northern Vietnam. We always only see R. variegata. Nice, but there are other species out there, maybe. Indeed, today I ran into one. And not just once, I saw at least 6 males and 1 female. Rhyothemis plutonia. A marvelous species. I only managed some far away shots, but happy to at least have a record of them.
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| Rhyothemis plutonium, male |
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| The same male, different pose |
The second species I ran into when it was so hot that hardly any dragonflies were out and about. Along the stream in the half open area that once was (not so long ago) solid forest I noticed a massive dragonfly sitting. I took some far away shots before catching it for a few in-hand photos. This was Megalogomphus sommeri. Giant hooktail, what is in a name….
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| An awesome gomphid, Megalogomphus sommeri, male. |
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| Same male in hand, allowing some close-ups |
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| Appendages in dorsal view |
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| Appendages in ventral view |
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| And finally in lateral view, awesome, giant hooktail |
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| Interesting detail of S7, hairy, and apical portion of S6, hairy |
Rhyothemis plutonia has been a great moment of our tour in Malaysia with Dave et Tom.
ReplyDeleteVery strange this hairy S7... why such tuft of seta there ?