New Year's Resolution 2 - the smallest of the small

May 9 and 10 I visited Hong Linh (the hometown of Toan) in Ha Tinh Province. This is the south of northern Vietnam. Objective was to see Nannophya pygmaea, the smallest of dragonflies. Close to Hong Linh is a pine forest with an open stream and it occurs here along that steam in smaller puddles on and between the rocks. Here another very small, if not as tiny, dragonfly occurs, although apparently in small numbers compared to the commoner Nannophya pygmaea, of which I saw a few dozen. I saw only two Nannophyopsis clara, one adult male and one freshly emerged. A strange little metallic thing that curls its abdomen constantly under its body. Both species are decidedly fly-like when they move about. The specimens I observed of N. clara were at slightly larger pools than N. pygmaea seemed to prefer.

N. clara is a species of southern China, including Taiwan, and Vietnam. N. pygmaea occurs over a much wider area. It is apparently common further south in Vietnam, but I never saw it in the north. That is, until now.

Nannophyopsis clara, a tiny metallic species that constantly curls its abdomen. This is a male.

Nannophya pygmaea, a male. It is actually redder than this, but my Canon fails to capture that colour well.

An immature male, lacking red

Another immature male

The pretty female of N. pygmaea, quite vividly marked

First entry of 2015, New Year's Resolutions

Recently I met with Toan when he was in Hanoi and he showed me a few intriguing photos. Clearly there is so much more to still look for. As a matter of fact, Nannophya pygmaea has already been on my wish list for a long time. It is therefore really heartening to know it is around in northern Vietnam. Toan had seen it in Ha Tinh Province. He also had photos of a fantastic blue Prodasineura. It looks like it could be P. doisuthepensis. It has been suggested that that species is a junior synonym of P. auricolor, just a blue version. However, it consistently seems to have more blue on S9-10 and a blue pattern on the prothorax and top of the head. These are absent in P. auricolor, not just replaced with yellow. I have seen many P. auricolor in the north, but never any that were blue, whereas that is highly distinctive. I do hope to see this blue gem in 2015 and maybe solve the mystery. And yet another species I would love to see, and for which I in fact already searched a few times (in the wrong places apparently) at Mau Son is beautiful Rhinocypha chaoi. There must be so much out there that I still missed, just check Sebastien's blog, or the literature, that 2015 will beyond a doubt prove very interesting. For now, my year list as of today includes Ischnura senegalensis.

Nannophya pygmaea, the world's smallest dragonfly (photo by Phan Quoc Toan)

And who would not want to see this beauty. Possible Prodasineura doisuthepensis, courtesy of Phan Quoc Toan

And painfully beautiful, certainly if you failed to find it, like me. Rhinocypha chaoi male, photo by Phan Quoc Toan.