Dragons & Damsels: January 2008

Anisoptera
Species Name: Tetrathemis irregularis
Family: Libellulidae

This attractive small dragonfly with the large blue eyes is usually found near rivers, swamps or ponds in or close to the jungle. It perches on vegetation or twigs close to the water edge from which it flies out to catch its prey. The sexes are said to be similarly coloured and marked. My photos show a male taken at a forest edge pond in Silam, Lahad Datu.

What is a Dragonfly?

What is a dragonfly? Dragonflies and damselflies are the most recognizable of all insects, so if you don't know already, the images on this blog will show you how they look like. And I'll just tell you about how they are generally classified without attempting to go into how scientists (called odonatologists) separate them into families, genera, species and subspecies. Which is just too complicated for even this Dragonchaser!
Dragonflies and damselflies belong to the order Odonata which is further divided into the subfamilies Anisoptera ("True" Dragonfly) and Zygoptera (Damselflies). However when we say "dragonfly" we generally mean any of the Odonata which can be either a dragonfly(Anisoptera) or a damselfly (Zygoptera). But if we say "damselfly" we mean only a Zygopteran and not Anisopteran! Understand?

Dragonflies vs Damselflies

Dragonflies (Suborder Anisoptera) dragonflies are larger, have large eyes that touch or almost touch, two pairs of strong transparent wings which are dissimilar, the hindwings broaden near the base to the connecting point to their bodies. They rest with their wings open and held horizontally.

Damselflies (Suborder Zygoptera) damselflies are small and delicate-looking, and have eyes that are separated. They rest holding their wings together above the body or held slightly open above. The hindwing of the damselfly is essentially similar to the forewing.

Both however have similar life cycles. Females lays their eggs in or near water. The larval or immature odonates (meaning member of the Odonata) are called nymphs or naiads using internal gills to breathe, and using extendable jaws (Have you seen the movie Alien?) to catch other aquatic insects or even tadpoles and fish. The larvae of large dragonflies may live as long as five years, or two months to three years in smaller species. When the the larva is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs up some emergent plant at night. Then the skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its old larval skin, waits for the sun to rise, pumps up its wings and flies off to feed on flying insects like mosquitoes and flies. In the adult stage, larger species of dragonfly can live as long as four months.

Dragonfly in Other Languages

What do other people call drangonflies (and damselflies)? Here's a short list that I've compiled without googling, honest!

Dragonfly (english),
Ching-ting 蜻蜓(chinese-putonghua),
Pepatung or Patung-patung,also Sibu-sibu(bahasa malaysia),
Tutubi (tagalog - philippines),
Alindanaw (cebuano - philippines),
Libelo (esperanto),
Tombo とんぼ (japanese),
Tompokizu (kadazan - malaysia),
Tompokiyu, Kiyu-kiyu or kuyu-kuyu (dusun - malaysia),
Capung (bahasa indonesia),
Tike, antolin (toraja - indonesia).

Tumbikal (malayalam - india)
Koora, Bath Koora (sinhalese - sri lanka)

Dragons & Damsels

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Tetrathemis irregularis

Dragonfly in Other Languages

Chuồn chuồn - (vietnamese)

Mang Por - (lao)

Other Photos of Mine