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A few Dragonflies from South-east Asia
(NB: see identification update at foot of page) Whilst on my travels recently, I've been lucky enough to continue seeing dragonflies and damselflies right through the winter. I was in Arizona for the first two weeks of November, where I saw good numbers, but didn't manage to get any photos. I then headed for Thailand for three weeks. In some places dragonflies were plentiful, in particular the commercial heart of Bangkok, with a cloud of thousands of insects around two trees by the river. By a quiet pond in the Bangkok suburbs, I managed to get this shot of a darter species (sympetrum, I presume): it's a bit like a red-eyed, Red-veined Darter...
I also shot this dragonfly at the same perch - not one I would instantly assign to a group I was familiar with...
By the second week of December, I was in Cambodia, and the dragonfly activity actually increased. Some of the temple sites around Angkor Wat and Siem Reap are surrounded by ornamental pools, which were alive with dragonflies. The only shot I managed to get, though, was this one: after a while I realised that this was probably the female of the above species photographed in Bangkok.
I'm now back in Arizona, and on Jan 12th I saw another dragonfly, and this wasn't even at a water site (which are few and far between in the desert!). So it seems that I won't have to endure that long wait for the first Large Red Damselfly in late April or May! UpdateMy thanks to Adey Baker for supplying the following information, and to Steve Covey and Ken Noble for offering the identifications as Crocothemis servilia servilia (top) and Orthetrum sabina (or Oasis Skimmer) as the male and female dragonflies. |
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