Copera number 3

On November 15 I was checking some ponds in the forest along the main road in Cat Tien National Park. A truly dark place it was, but with some small sunny patches where the sun peeked through the foliage. I noticed a Copera there with yellow legs, but only very little white on the abdomen tip. After I caught it, it became obvious it had very different appendages from C. marginipes or C. vittata. The latter species in the north of Vietnam also has yellowish legs, but here in the south the legs are truly very orange. So, obviously it was not C. vittata and it also was not C. marginipes. I knew of another species in South-East Asia, C. chantaburii, but was not aware of its occurrence in Vietnam. Checking the literature I learned two things: it indeed was C. chantaburii and that species is known from southern Vietnam. But to me it was new. Interestingly, it occurred side by side with both C. marginipes and C. vittata. Below photos were all taken along the same 4 metres or so of pool edge.

This is Copera chantaburii. Note is has appendages of approximate the same length both superior and inferior. S8-9 are completely dark dorsally. Nevertheless, with its yellow legs easily mistaken for C. marginipes.

Close up of the dorsal pattern of another male

And the interesting appendages, all equal in length

Copera marginipes has S9 all white and S8 extensively white on the posterior half. The superior appendages are very small, but the inferiors are very large.

And although in the north confusingly similar in colour, here C. vittata sports very orange, almost red legs. It has less white on the abdominal tip, with most of S9 white, but S8 black. The superior appendages reach to halfway of the inferiors.

Some additional species at Huu Lien from April 21

The two Copera species of Huu Lien and the one Pseudocopera were already common and easily found. Here are the males of P. ciliata and C. marginipes in their full glory.

Pseudocopera ciliata is the easy one, large, and white when mature

Here a male Copera marginipes with its simple, but large superior appendages

A somewhat messier C. marginipes. C. vittata normally has much less white on the last segments.

A remarkable and large species was Orolestes selysi. The dark-winged form and the hyaline form occurred side by side.

A fantastic dark-winged specimen of Orolestes selysi

The somewhat less striking, sorry to say, hyaline version.

I also had the opportunity to take a better look at some immature Orthetrum glaucum.

First, a female Orthetrum glaucum.

A fresh, still less pronounced, female

The interesting immature male. The striking pattern is later completely obscured by pruinosity.

December 8, Xuan Son in the winter sun

This Sunday, I drove to Xuan Son, to see what has changed since I last visited. Like in Huu Lien, water level had dropped, but the good streams were still good. Here too about 30 species for the day, but numbers for most were down. Coeliccia sasamotoi was the exception, being very much in evidence all over the place. What is interesting is that several species recorded for Huu Lien in summer, but completely absent during all our visits this November / December were still commonly flying at Xuan Son. Aristocypha fenestrella and Matrona basilaris were easily found. Also Euphaea masoni, only seen during our first visit to Huu Lien a month ago and not since, was still about in small numbers. What makes them stay on here?

I bumped into the following species: Matrona basilaris, M. taoi, Vestalis gracilis, Neurobasis chinensis, Atrocalopteryx coomani, Vestalaria miao, Noguchiphaea yoshikoae, Heliocypha perforata, Aristocypha fenestrella, R. "arguta" (I took pictures of several in hand, with hardly any orange on S9-10 to quite a bit), Euphaea masoni, Agriocnemis femina, Ceriagrion auranticum, C. fallax, Pseudagrion pruinosum, Coeliccia onoi, C. scutellum, C. sasamotoi, Indocnemis orang, Copera marginipes, C. vittata (I must have overlooked it before), Boyeria karubei, Orthetrum sabina, O. pruinosum, O. glaucum, Diplacodes trivialis, Neurothemis fulvia, Palpopleura sexmaculata, Crocothemis servilia, Trithemis festiva, T. aurora.

Old male Euphaea masoni

Another male with hole in wing

Matrona basilaris, male, was still common

Matrona basilaris, female

Atrocalopteryx coomani, male

Matrona taoi, male, only one and damaged male around

Pretty Coeliccia sasamotoi, male

Ceriagrion fallax, male

One of several captured Rhinocypha cf. arguta, with at least some orange on S9-10.

Very nice male Copera vittata, overlooked previously?

At last, Copera vittata! Overlooked?

Yellow-legged Copera are everywhere in Vietnam. We call them geelvoetje, little yellow foot in Dutch. It is always Copera marginipes. The other common Copera is C. ciliata, with white legs and we call that one therefore witvoetje, little white foot. And of course there ought to be another Copera around, with orangy legs, but I never saw it. I did notice that the amount of white on the abdominal tip is rather variable in C. marginipes, but studied enough closely to conclude that it was always this species. In Huu Lien however I once more closely looked at all geelvoetjes and noticed that the appendages looked different on some, even if the legs were yellowish, not orangy. And I also remembered that the dorsum of the thorax was supposed to be blodgy, not sharply demarcated from the humerals. Well, study up close revealed that this was nevertheless C. vittata. Clearly the geographical differences, or individual differences, are great. The appendages however leave no room for doubt, they are very differently shaped from C. marginipes, with longer superiors and upwards slanting and tapering inferiors. It is definitely possible that I had overlooked it in the previous months. From now on I will pay better attention and surely will find out whether or not it is in fact commoner.

Copera vittata, male, note the bushy looking appendages

Another male, with very yellow legs

Yet another male, note the appendages. Yellow legs and dark, clearly demarcated dorsum of thorax

Another male, showing tapering and upward slanting inferior appendages

For comparison, Copera marginipes, note straight and thick inferior and short superior appendages, and interestingly, longer wings, reaching unto S6.

The female of Copera marginipes

In my entry on Copera marginipes and Copera ciliata I explained that exactly because they are common, I had not bothered to take photos of the female of C. marginipes. In fact I did and the photo can be seen below. Having said that, I see fewer females of C. marginipes than of C. ciliata.

Copera marginipes, female

Copera marginipes and Pseudocopera ciliata

These two common species are spectacular in many ways. But...they are both common and in the right places very common (at seeps and little streams with overhanging vegetation for instance, or at the bottom of wet cliffs). So, you can always postpone taking their picture and concentrate on different things. But now, looking back at the last two months, I did not take that many photos, although there have been plenty of opportunities. No female C. marginipes! No immature male P. ciliata!
Marginipes is the smaller of the two. I call it yellow foot. And ciliata I call white foot. This is for obvious reasons. Displaying or fighting males in flight hold their legs forward, a striking feature. Fresh specimens have all white abdomens, a cause of confusion for the unwary. And immature specimens of P. ciliata have reddish legs, another cause of confusion.

Pseudocopera ciliata, male, with striking white legs and blackish knees

Female Pseudocopera ciliata, with reddish legs

Another female

Copera marginipes, male, with striking yellow legs

Still immature male with whitish abdominal segments, but thorax and legs already of mature coloration