Saturday 7 February 2009

Argiocnemis alcyone

Zygoptera
Species Name: Argiocnemis alcyone
Family: Coenagrionidae
Photo 1: A young male (this species goes through 
a series of colour change as it matures, 
young specimens have largely red abdomens)

I found this delightful little damselfly to be quite common in shaded drains and in weeds among the palms in the plantation I where work. 

Dr Rory Dow who is in the process of re-describing this species (and transfering it to this genus from Mortonagrion) identified my photos and said it was an endemic species in Borneo and my photographs are probably the only ones of this species in existance! He added "It appears to be quite widely distributed along the east coast of Borneo, but there is an apparently isolated population in Brunei."
Photo 2: A female

Photo 3: A mature male

5 comments:

Anthony Quek said...

Nice colour damselflies. The male both mature & immature looks more attractive then the female :D

spookydragonfly said...

Wow! Congratulations! As usual, great captures!

Amila Salgado said...

Damselflies can be so difficult to photograph and the pics you share of them are consistently good.

Aniruddha Dhamorikar said...

Lovely details there and amazing photographs! i'm in awe of your love for odonates :)
i'd be watching your blog. Also, I'd like to be in touch regarding the details and info on Odonatas species wise on Wikipedia. I had made following changes to Ischnura aurora here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischnura_aurora
recently, and would like your input to it. I hail from India and I presume we share a lot many common odonate species distributed in this subcontinent. Regards,
Aniruddha.

Matt Latham said...

Superb looking damselfly! I was stunned to read that you have 275 species in Borneo - that is amazing for an odanata enthusiast!!