Saturday, February 28, 2009

Libellulidae - Lathrecista asiatica

Libellulidae - Lathrecista asiatica (Fabricius, 1798)

Today I went to Bangi Forest Reserve and I spotted this guy - Lathrecista asiatica. It has beautiful red tail but the body is rather blue/grey. Lathrecista asiatica is not as common as Agrionoptera sexlineata in Bangi Forest Reserve. Both these species share the same habitat.

a male L. asiatica

a male L. asiatica

a young female L. asiatica


Libellulidae - Neurothemis fluctuans

Libellulidae - Neurothemis fluctuans (Fabricius, 1793)

Neurothemis fluctuans is one of the most common odonate species in Peninsular Malaysia. One will spot this species easily at open ponds. The male is in red colour but the female is rather dull brown/yellow colour. Neurothemis fluctuans quite similar to N. fulvia, but both could be distinguished by the margins of terminal hyaline area of the wings.



Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Libellulidae - Neurothemis fulvia

Libellulidae - Neurothemis fulvia (Drury, 1773)

Neurothemis fulvia resembles N. fluctuans as both have dark red coloured wings. However, N. fulvia is less common (normally found in forested areas) compared to N. fluctuans. The male and female of N. fulvia are quite similar in colour. On the other hand, the female of N. fluctuans is yellow/brown in colour. Another distinct character to differentiate N. fulvia from N. fluctuans is the terminal hyaline area of the wings.

male

female


Monday, February 16, 2009

Libellulidae - Larva

After a long period of quite on Odonata, I went to Bangi Forest to do some larva sampling yesterday. I bumped into this libellulid larva. This larva was hiding in between fallen leaves in a swampy pond (view the habitat here). Only one individual of this libellulid species was spotted. This larva is definitely different from the larva of Agrionoptera sexlineata. It has hairy legs and the shape of abodomen is also quite different from the larva of Agrionoptera sexlineata. I have no idea what species it belongs to, but I'm rearing it to reveal its identity.