Indothemis limbata - new to Vietnam

On January 1 on Phu Quoc we checked a man-made pond close to the dam that closes off the Duong Dong Reservoir. A heavily vegetated pond, it had many dragonflies of a wonderful diversity of species.  My attention was drawn to a blue-and-black horizontally perching dragonfly that reminded me of a pond hawk Erythemis. This being south-east Asia, that of course was impossibly. Excited I got closer to it and recognized Indothemis limbata, a little recorded species known from India and Sri Lanka in the west to Thailand in the east (where Dennis Farrell has recorded it commonly in some places). It had not been recorded from Vietnam until now. Only recently (Ellenrieder et al., 2014) had its congener I. carnicata been recorded from Vietnam. This species has been found at little used swimming pools, indicating a preference for still, but deep, water with rocky surroundings. I. limbata appears to prefer heavily vegetated ponds. It is easily recognized by its blackish body, blackish-brown basal patches to the hind wings (with some limited marking of the forewings) and bluish pruinose abdomen. Although I saw at least 5-6 different males, I did not see any females.

A male in strong sunlight

Another male. Note the darkened wingtip crescents.

In dorsal view the dark brown basal patches to the hind wings are obvious

Gynacantha bayadera - yet another Gynacantha (species 9)

I had long been looking out for Gynacantha bayadera in Vietnam. According to the IUCN website it is a widespread species, occurring from India to the south of China. Is is mentioned as native to Vietnam. However, until now I had not been able to find it. After James found Gynacantha khasiaca, albeit probably at least a new subspecies, at Cat Tien, the tally for Gynacantha species recently in Vietnam was already at 8. This includes the record by Ellenrieder et al. of Gynacantha hyalina from Cuc Phuong. On January 1 I finally caught up with a female Gynacantha bayadera, easily identified by the apple green thorax and face and plain frons (no T-mark) near Duong Dong lake on Phu Quoc. The next evening I also caught a male along a forest road at the north side of the island (where it flew with G. basiguttata and G. subinterrupta). Clearly it is not a rare species on the island. The male too is try green, with unmarked frons.

Male Gynacantha bayadera, a pretty, very green, small species

The female, likewise very green

The appendages of the male

And the (almost) unmarked green frons

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 Christmas safari - Da Lat - Con Dao - Phu Quoc*

*Adjusted on January 4, 2020. Euphaea pahyapi mentioned in this entry in fact concerns a different species now described as E. cyanopogon Hämäläinen, Kosterin & Kompier,  2019.

For a Christmas break Kameliya and I travelled to Da Lat, Con Dao and Phu Quoc. The first was good for 12 dragonfly species, the second for about 25 and the latter for 63. Needless to say, we were looking for a lot more than dragonflies, so this was not disappointing. Phu Quoc was out of season for some of the specialties, but with 63 species in 4 days of searching we still topped the 2007-2008 survey by Bui Huu Manh and its successor from 2011 by Do Manh Cuong et al. Floris Brekelmans in March 2015 found several additional species (notably Podolestes coomansi and Coeliccia kazukoae), so it was not surprising that there were still a few species that remained to be discovered.

On the list as given by Do et al. (2011) there are several species that were already present on the list of Bui, but judging from the photos in his photographic guide some of these are misidentifications. (Copera marginipes is clearly C. vittata, Cratilla lineata is Potamarcha congener, supposed Cratilla metallica looks to be Lathrecista asiatica, Ceriagrion auranticum looks to be C. calamineum, and Euphaea ochracea is the newly described E. cyanopogon.) Do et al. moreover suppose that the weird thoracic markings of Coeliccia yamasakii in Bui indicate a species novum, but I consider these immature examples of typical C. yamasakii. The unidentified Prodasineura is P. verticalis from southern Thailand. This is not to diminish the value of their pioneering work. They did much to map the beauty of the Odonate fauna of Phu Quoc, which is under severe threat from the break-neck speed of the development of the island. Waterways are getting polluted and depleted, wetlands drained and build-up. Clearly environmental considerations are not keeping up with the urge to make a quick buck.

I will over the next days publish photos of some of the species found. Here I limit myself to my list of Phu Quoc and photos of wonderful Rhinagrion viridatum, a highlight of the trip. This species was recorded as Rhinagrion mima, but Kalkman & Villanueva (2011) already pointed out that the inclusion of R. viridatum in R. mima should be revised and R. viridatum given full species status.

The first of 7 males of beautiful Rhinagrion viridatum

Another male of the same smashing species

The List:

Vestalis gracilis
Libellago hyalina
Heliocypha biforata
Euphaea pahyapi****
Ischnura senegalensis
Aciagrion borneese
Agriocnemis minima*
A. nana*
A. pygmaea
Archibasis viola
Ceriagrion cerinorubellum
C. olivaceum*
Mortonagrion falcatum***
Pseudagrion australasiae*
P. microcephalum
P. rubriceps
P. pruinosum
P. williamsoni
Coeliccia kazukoae**
Pseudocopera ciliata*
Copera vittata**
Prodasineura verticalis**
Anax guttatus
Gynacantha basiguttata*
G. bayadera*
G. subinterrupta*
Ictinigomphus decoratus meleanops
Paragomphus capricornis*
Epophthalmia frontalis*
Acisoma panorpoides
Crocothemis servilia
Orthetrum sabina
O. pruinosum*
O. chrysis
Pantala flavescens
Trithemis festiva
T. aurora
T. pallidinervis
Brachydiplax chalybea*
Brachythemis contaminata
Diplacodes nebulosa
D. trivialis
Hydrobasileus croceus
Indothemis limbata***
Lathrecista asiatica
Nannophya pygmaea
Neurothemis fluctuans
N. tullia
N. fulvia
N. intermedia*
Potamarcha congener
Pseudothemis jorina*
Rhodothemis rufa*
Rhyothemis phyllis
R. variegata
R. triangularis
Tetrathemis irregularis
Tholymis tillarga
Tramea transmarina euryale*
Urothemis signata
Zygonyx iris
Zyxomma petiolatum*
Rhinagrion viridatum

*   Refers to species first recorded on the island, although some are very common
** Coeliccia kazukoae had already been found by Floris Brekelmans, but is not rare. Prodasineura verticalis had been recorded as Prodasineura sp. Copera vittata had been misidentified previously (as C. marginipes), but is a very common species.
*** Refers to species recorded for the first time for Vietnam (as far as I know)
**** Refers to a species recorded for the first time for Vietnam, but misidentified in previous surveys.

Coeliccia information and a new Coeliccia from Da Lat*

*Adjusted on April 15, 2016, after publication of this species in Zootaxa by Rory Dow as C. suoitia.

A few days back Philip Steinhoff sent me the links to the very interesting article he just published together with Gabriele Uhl on "Taxonomy and nomenclature of some mainland SE-Asian Coeliccia species (Odonata, Platycnemididae) using micro-CT analysis". It is worth the read, not only because of the interesting technique used to make visible the genital ligulae in old museum specimens, but also because it sorts out the names of some of the commoner Coeliccia species from Vietnam, by making clear the synonymy. For my blog this means that I have to change C. acco into C. pyriformis, I already used C. scutellum and C. cyanomelas (not C. tomokunii nor C. onoi).

Please use the below information if you want to access the paper. Do not forget to read on below the message that I copy from an email by Philip.

You can either get it straight on the Zootaxa homepage: http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2015/f/zt04059p276.pdf
There, you can also get the 3D PDFs, which are published as supplement: http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/content.html

Or you can get it from Philip's RG page:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287798126_Taxonomy_and_nomenclature_of_some_mainland_SE-Asian_Coeliccia_species_Odonata_Platycnemididae_using_micro-CT_analysis

While on the subject of Coeliccia, yesterday I was birding in Ta Nung Valley in Da Lat and noticed an interesting Coeliccia. It had white superior appendages and blackish inferiors, which were also clearly longer. Otherwise it had a largely blackish abdomen, with minor markings on S10 or in some individuals also S9. The thorax had a yellow antehumeral stripe on black dorsum. It was clearly an unknown species (to me). Subsequently Rory informed me this is likely a species recently described and soon to be published. So no work to do for me, but a nice find. Below a few shots of specimens in hand and in the field.

The cool Coeliccia suoitia from Da Lat. This seems the mature type, of which I saw four.

Thorax in somewhat dorsal view. Note the white horns on the prothorax.

White superiors and longer dark-grey inferiors. In another individual the spots on S9 were absent and those on S10 more bluish and smaller

In lateral view some bluish on inferiors and lower part of superiors dark grey.

Another male out and about

Holden - James Holden... James is back in Cat Tien - Microgomphus chelifer

I learned the other day that James is back in Cat Tien National Park. James already spent quite a bit of time there looking for dragonflies in the recent past and now is looking to add more to the list. A few days back he contacted me on an unidentified small gomphid. I was happy to help out and could identify it as Microgomphus chelifer thelyphonus. This species is known from Thailand, but new to the Vietnamese list. There is another Microgomphus species in Vietnam, M. jurzitzai, described by Haruki Karube, also from the south of Vietnam, but that species has quite different appendages. The epiproct for instance is much more "hooked". Here below a few shots of this interesting discovery.
James was also able to take a nice photo of Burmagomphus asahinai, which I also reproduce here. Let's hope he will discover more goodies in the next few months!

Female Microgomphus chelifer thelyphonus, courtesy of James Holden, at Cat Tien NP, 11 Dec 2015

The male of the same species, in hand, same date and place, courtesy of James Holden

Appendages of the male in dorsal view. What looks like two pins extending from the epiproct are in fact two branches originating from the cerci.

And a nice photo of a species already recorded from Cat Tien by James: male Burmagomphus asahinai, photo taken in 22 August 2015, courtesy of James Holden

Sarasaeschna gaofengensis - The Tu Le species novum has a name

I received the article describing Sarasaeschna gaofengensis Yeh & Kiyoshi, 2015  last week from Wen-Chi. The description is based on a male caught in mid June at Gaufeng, Lufeng county, in Yunnan Province (China). The specimen was collected at a little over 2000m altitude. When I notified Wen-Chi this year in May that I had caught an unknown Sarasaeschna in Yen Bai Province, he alerted me to the fact that the very same species was being described and would be published soon, from Yunnan. Sarasaeschna species have a short flight period and are generally difficult to find, so discovering them almost simultaneously, give or take a year, in China and Vietnam, is quite a coincidence. In Vietnam the species was found at approximately 1000m asl, so considerably lower than in Yunnan. Below I reproduce the picture of a male in lateral view and come-ups of the appendages.

It has a name! Male Sarasaeschna gaofengensis from Tu Le, Yen Bai Province, 15 May 2015.

Appendages in dorsal view

And the same in ventral view