Gossamer Tapestry

Reflections on conservation, butterflies, and ecology in the nation's heartland

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Dragonflies of the Malay Peninsula

Work has been intense the last couple of weeks, hence my lack of posts. I really wanted to get one final post of photos from Malaysia up. Throughout my trip, I was astonished at the beauty and diversity of dragonflies that I saw. They were everywhere, even in really urban spots like Penang.


Neurothemis fluctuans




Family Coenagronidae, possibly Enallagma sp.

Green Skimmer (Orthetrum sabina)

We saw dragonflies in nearly every color of the rainbow, however red was particularly well represented.


In the mangrove forest

Near the hot springs
(Possibly Trithemis kirbyi)

I don't know what most of the species were, perhaps Amila will stop by to help with identification. My favorite sighting was at the tea plantation.


I really enjoyed the dragonfly viewing and photography, even though I didn't see the two species I most wanted a look at on this trip: the Dawn Dropwing (Trithemis aurora) and Neurobasis chinensis. Guess I'll just have to go back some time.

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7 Comments:

At 23:02, Blogger Ur-spo said...

I was wondering where you were.
Dawn Dropwing is just too fab for words.
Although we will see Dawn Dropwing in Key West at the 801 bar.

 
At 02:39, Blogger wcs said...

Just beautiful! We have dragonflies around here, but not in such amazing variety.

 
At 06:08, Blogger Randy Emmitt said...

Doug,
Nice posting with an excellent assortment! The last one reminds me of an Eastern Pondhawk in transition.

 
At 07:26, Blogger Doug Taron said...

Spo- I completely missed that Dawn Dropwing would make an excellent drag name.

Walt- Yeah, the tropics are like that.

Randy- I see the similarity in appearance, but the behavior was completely different. Pondhawks putter around in the weeds. This species had a very zippy flight.

 
At 10:05, Blogger robin andrea said...

Great seeing these beautiful dragonflies, doug. Always very cool to see insects in a part of the world that I know I'll never visit.

 
At 18:16, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great collection of dragons. I'm so lookng forward to spring. It seems so lonely when I walk through the woods and swamps.

 
At 23:58, Anonymous Mike said...

Doug, I wish I had a camera like yours. If you're coming again I'd be happy to show you more dragonflies. :)

 

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