An exciting new Chlorogomphus and an old acquaintance

When I met Haruki Karube on May 2 at Mau Son mountain he had just explored streams in the Central Highlands in Da Lat. He was kind enough to show me a specimen of the beautiful Chlorogomphus caloptera, which he described as recently as 2013. A female, and that is a beautiful creature.

Never mind the hand, focus on the wonderful wing pattern of this female Chlorogomphus caloptera.

The same female in lateral view

And her face in frontal view

On May 9 I was in Ha Tinh Province, not quite Da Lat, but the south of the north, if you catch my drift. In the lowlands I visited a stream with Toan when we discovered a female Sinorogomphus. In hand I could identify it as S. sachiyoae. This is another species described by Karube, but much longer ago, in 1995. Although originally thought to be restricted in range, it has now been found from Cao Bang Province all the way south to Ha Tinh Province, making it one of the more wide-spread species.

Sinorogomphus sachiyoae female. Note the characteristic pattern on S1-2. They do not always have such extensive basal patches, although it is not abnormal.