Mortonagrion falcatum - an addition to the Vietnamese list

On January 2 I revisited the area around Lake Duong Dong, located centrally on Phu Quoc. The previous day had been quite productive and I was hoping to find a few more additional species for the holiday list. We had found a trail into the forest that after a bit of a hike crossed a stream and it was there that I noticed perched at the tip of a small stick over dead leaves just above the ground by the side of the stream a tiny damsel. Because of its drab basic coloration I thought it was a female and also it did not have obvious appendages in dorsal view. But just as I was getting ready to take better shots my foot slipped a bit and it darted off. Because it was both drab and tiny I immediately lost it. I searched for a long time for additional specimens, but could not find any. Disillusioned, I continued the hike for a while, but on the way back revisited the place and again searched high and low, to no avail. Before leaving even more disillusioned I rechecked the place of the original sighting and there it was! Tiny and inconspicuous, back at its stick. I crawled down next to it and took some photos. But when I wanted to pounce on it, it again darted off into another dimension. The thing was: when I checked the photos (in the middle of shooting) it was a male! I did my best to get as good a close-up of the appendages and this saved the day.

I knew I had seen something like it on some website somewhere and just started leafing through Coenagrionidae. Yes, of course, Mortonagrion! But the first logical suspect, with a sort of similar abdominal pattern, M. arthuri, has rather different appendages. But eventually I found it in Lieftinck (1934): Mortonagrion falcatum. Recognizable by its strange, quite distinctive, appendages. Records are scarce, but it is a widely distributed species, occurring in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and with a record from Lao PDR. On the IUCN Red List it is hypothesized that it occurs in Cambodia and Vietnam. Well, it does (in Vietnam, but given the location of Phu Quoc it is highly likely it also occurs in Cambodia. See the pictures below of this interesting midget.

Not a very conspicuous little insect at all, when it perches over brown leaves, but actually rather pretty: Mortonagrion falcatum

The distinctive appendages, the superiors broad and up slanting.

A visit to Van Long - look what the cat brought in

So, what did I see at Van Long? The most interesting record was of a female Mortonagrion aborense. Now I have seen this species at Van Long, at Cuc Phuong, in Huu Lien and in downtown Hanoi. Clearly it is in fact a common species in northern Vietnam that has been very much overlooked until Sebastien ran into it.

Mortonagrion aborense, female

I also took a pretty good shot of Pseudagrion australasiae, a male. There were not many around. I saw maybe 5-6 males over the day.

Pseudagrion australasiae, male. Note the short superior appendages, half the length of S10. Otherwise very similar to P. microcephalum.

And the last species that deserves a bit of attention was Ceriagrion auranticum. There were quite a few flying and this female did me the courtesy of staying put. Note the long abdomen, protruding further beyond the wingtip than in C. nipponicum.

Ceriagrion auranticum, female, with wings up to 1/3 of S6

For convenience, the female C. nipponicum of a few posts back:

Ceriagrion nipponicum, female

And of course that other Paracercion, P. calamorum. There were still several around, including some females.

Paracercion calamorum, male

Paracercion calamorum, female

Mortonagrion aborense in Cuc Phuong

Sebastien Delonglee recently recorded Mortonagrion aborense for the first time in Vietnam, from the suburbs of Hanoi (see also his blog and my own entry on the species). It was surprising that this species had not been recorded elsewhere in Vietnam, given the unlikely location of its discovery. I was therefore happily surprised when I bumped into about 6 males and a female in a small muddy pond with emergent vegetation under tree cover in Cuc Phuong National Park. Yet another species that may not be as rare as the scarceness of records suggests.

Mortonagrion aborense, male

Another male

And yet another

Mortonagrion aborense, female

A new dragonfly and a new damselfly

A friend introduced me to an institute in the suburbs of Hanoi that has a 1 hectare large forested garden with several small ponds. This place is home to Mortonagrion aborense, a damselfly known from surrounding countries, but new to Vietnam. Although it rained intensely for most of the time I was there, I did manage to see 3 males. Here is one male, not the best of pictures, I am afraid.

Mortonagrion aborense, male

While there I noticed a small dark dragonfly sitting on the tip of a lotus flower stalk. It turned out to be a beautiful male of Aethriamantha aethra. Sebastien Delonglee mentions that this species was only added to the Vietnamese list in 2011, when it was found in the south of the country. Shortly after, Sebastien also located it at a pond in the suburbs of Hanoi, but sadly that pond was lost to construction. Maybe it is indeed, as Sebastien suggested, not so rare, but just under recorded. Nevertheless, a splendid surprise.

Aethriamantha aethra, male