Labrogomphus torvus and Megalogomphus sommeri - more widespread

In November last year we found Labrogomphus torvus in Huu Lien and also in Huu Lien this May Megalogomphus sommeri. L. torvus was a new addition to the Vietnamese list and M. sommeri had been seen by Cuong in Cuc Phuong once. As far as I know, that was it. In the meantime Sebastien recognized L. torvus on photos from an unidentified gomphid from Tam Dao. I also ran into this species in northern Bac Kan Province in late June and early July, where it shared a shallow and 2 meter wide stream along an open agricultural area bordered on one side by degraded forest with Megalogomphus sommeri. Apparently both these large and powerful species have a wider distribution in northern Vietnam. They were both active during the hotter hours of the day, when few other gomphids were out and about. At other moments on the same days at least an additional 9 species visited the same stream (Burmagomphus vermicularis, Stylurus amicus, Asiagomphus auricolor, Lamelligomphus camelus, Merogomphus paviei, Macrogomphus guilinensis, Gomphidia kruegeri, Leptogomphus perforatus, Gomphidia abbotti).

Labrogomphus torvus, male, Bac Kan Province. See also earlier posts both in this blog and on Sebastien's.

Megalogomphus sommeri, widespread in southern China and also more widely distributed in Vietnam than paucity of records seemed to suggest.

The female of Megalogomphus sommeri

Facial pattern of the female