Diplacodes nebulosa - another mystery solved

Where is Diplacodes nebulosa? I asked myself that question often. I had seen it once on a trip to the Mekong Delta in wintertime. That was a work-related trip before we moved to Vietnam and I had never seen it since. Now the riddle was solved. Although the species has apparently been recorded in the north, it certainly has not been seen there by me. Now in Cat Tien I found it present in the dried out and grassy fishponds, where fresh specimens abounded. So, it can be very common in the south, but as a wintertime (dry-season) species. Adult males are grey with dark wingtips, which makes them easy to recognize. The female has a neat black-and-white pattern on the abdomen and thorax. Once known, also easy to recognize.

Female Diplacodes nebulosa with typical broad black dorsal stripe on abdomen and blackish thorax with light stripes.

An adult male, easy to recognize because of small size, blueish-grey colour and dark-brown wingtips.

Another male showing the distinctive wing pattern

And obelisking in the hot sun

Immature male showing the same abdominal pattern as the female, the same thorax pattern too, but the wing tips are already somewhat darkened.

Diplacodes trivialis

There are a few species here in Vietnam that are very common and apparently resistant to pollution so that they can be found almost anywhere, like Brachymesia contaminata and Orthetrum sabina. One dragonfly quite resistant, it seems, is Diplacodes trivialis. It is not found readily at the same dirty ponds, but present even in the most insect-devoid paddies. It is a small dragonfly, the adult males easily identified by their blueish-grey appearance and white appendages. In the south of Vietnam there is another species, of which the female is quite similar, although males are easily distinguished on the basis of their dark wingtips. This is D. nebulosa, but it is apparently absent around Hanoi. Exactly because D. trivialis is so common, I did not take many photographs of it. Here are a few, by means of which I introduce it to the audience. Please applaud.

Diplacodes trivialis, male

Another male, slightly less pruinose, still showing yellow on the thorax

And an immature male, colored as a female would be, but recognizable as male by for instance the appendages