It is great to be back! Pia Oac in October

Work took me to the Netherlands for a few weeks, but back in Hanoi the autumn weather is wonderful, temperatures still high, well above 30 degrees on most days, but humidity lower. This Friday, after the working day was done, we drove to Pia Oac, parked the car after midnight by the roadside near the top and slept a bit till early morning, which took off with Slay-bellied Tesias starting the morning choir. Mist lifted and it was showtime. The next couple of postings will be on the various findings. Exciting stuff, if I may say so, with both a male and a female Sieboldius sp. novum, with at long last evidence of two species of Scalmogomphus, with a classic Paracercion v-nigrum to disperse any lingering doubts, with a new Vestalaria species for us, with two different species of Planaeschnids and so on. Only 41 species for the day, but what quality!

Let me start with a simple photo of Paracercion v-nigrum. Until now the males observed just inside Cao Bang Province along the TL 212 had missed the "V" mark on S8, although everything else pointed to that species. Rice fields had been harvested and were dry, but in the small pool next to fields in which we had observed them before one male, with all blue S8-9, was present. But earlier in the day, inside Pia Oac Nature Reserve, in a small pond with some emergent grasses, I took photos of another and typical male.

Male Paracercion v-nigrum, with typical v-mark on S8