Macromia number 9, M. katae

This January Natalia von Ellenrieder, Martin Hauser, Stephen Galmairi and Thai Pham published on article in Check List on field research carried out in Vietnam. Of course I carefully perused it and was astonished to read about a new record for Vietnam of Macromia katae not far from Hanoi. Both myself and Sebastien Delonglee set out to find it, but at my visit earlier this year it was probably far too early. But Sebastien was more successful towards the end of May or early June and finally I myself found time today to go to the location. It was mostly very cloudy, but I was lucky enough to almost immediately spot a Macromia cruising up and down and even more lucky to be able to net it for verification. Indeed, it was Macromia katae. Although sharing some characteristics with M. unca, like yellow antehumerals and an obvious spine on the dorsum of S10, it was immediately obvious from its largely blackish face that it was M. katae. Check of the hamule and genital lobe confirmed the ID. In Europe we are happy with one Macromia, in the US with a few, but Southeast Asia has an abundance. This is my ninth species for the north of Vietnam and they are all just simply fantastic.

M. katae is a rather rare species, virtue of the scarcity of its lowland habitat, as explained in the Check List article.

Macromia katae, a beautiful Macromia. Note the darkened wing bases.

The face is very dark, with small yellow markings on labrum, base of mandibles, and postclypeus.

The dorsal spine on S10 is very prominent

The epiproct is quite long, extending well beyond the superiors

Typical hamule and lobe. What I found striking is that the genital lobe is bicolored.