Ceriagrion calamineum, new for Vietnam

I have been lucky so far with Ceriagrion species. I really like this genus of robust and colorful damsels. In Cat Tien in the first week of August I encountered 3 orange-yellow species. Just a few C. auranticum, generally a common and certainly a widespread species, C. malaisei, which I had seen before in Bac Kan Province and in Ba Be National Park in the north, but also occurring, evidently, in the south. But the third was the price. Ceriagrion calamineum is a species known to occur eastward to central Thailand. Like Brachydiplax sobrina and quite a few other additions to Vietnam I found in Cat Tien, it belongs to a complex of southern species that occurs widely in Thailand and apparently extends further eastward. I found them in a corner of inundated grassland near the fishponds next to the guard station.

The beautiful male Ceriagrion calamineum

The paler female, hiding in the grass

A second male

Typical appendages in close-up