17 April, QL 32 back from Sapa to Ba Vi, and Ba Vi on the 18th

On the 17th we drove back from Sapa along the QL 32, as we had originally planned as the route to use towards Sapa. It is a great drive, but long and although quiet (devoid of heavy traffic) and generally good pavement, it twists and turns, thus slowing progress. But the scenery is nice and the hills are strewn with streams. I could do only very few stops, but the few we did produced great species. One open stream in an area with degraded forest had at least 30 or so Archineura hetaerinoides, yes again, so maybe not so rare after all. The same stream also had a billion or so Zygonyx iris. Another stop produced a fresh Bayadera male, still to be identified. And yet another stop a Rhipidolestes owadai male and a beautiful male Calicnemia miles. Lastly, a small stream over rocks by the road had 15 or so fantastic Coeliccia chromothorax.

Ba Vi on the 18th was shrouded in mist, so species were hard to find. I only saw a single Coeliccia scutellum, a fresh male and a female Indocnemis orang, first of the season, and also the first 4 fresh Agriomorpha fusca, besides a few common dragonflies.

Fresh male Bayadera species, work to be done

Female Coeliccia chromothorax

And the magnificent male Coeliccia chromothorax

Not to be confused with C. chromothorax, immature male Indocnemis orang, also with yellow thorax

The very beautiful Calicnemis miles, male

Male Rhipidolestes owadai

Brilliant Archineura hetaerinoides, temporarily held captive, male

Indocnemis orang

Asahina (1997) describes two forms of Indocnemis orang. The first was originally described by Foerster in 1907 as Trichocnemis orang. The second form (forma kempi) was described by Laidlaw in 1917 as Indocnemis kempi. In 1985 Asahina lumped them, but in 1997 he writes "Now I am changing my previous idea (1985a), in which kempi (1917) was synonymized with orang (1907), though the former was recognized as a large-sized form of the latter." He then discusses I. orang based on specimens from Cuc Phuong and I. orang, forma kempi, based on specimens from Tam Dao. These belong to the same species, according to Asahina, based on the form of the penile organ.
Indeed, when I ran into a smaller version of I. orang in Cuc Phuong, with a different thorax pattern, I first thought it would be a different species from the I. orang I know from Ba Vi and Tam Dao. For the time being, let's go with Asahina's interpretation.

This is a spectacular species of forested streams, where males occupy territories on large wet rocks and boulders. Below some photos of both forms.

Indocnemis orang, male from Cuc Phuong. Note reduced thoracic stripes.

Indocnemis orang, f. kempi, from Tam Dao

I. orang, f. kempi from Tam Dao

And another male from Tam Dao

Female I. orang, f. kempi (presumably) from Tam Dao