Odonata of Langkawi

It has been over three months since I took that first dragonfly photo.

Since then, I have taken many more photos of dragonflies and damselflies and learned lots, lots more about them.  And I am still learning.

During this time, I came across C.Y. Choong's blog, "Odonata of Peninsular Malaysia", and started reading and learning from him through his blog.  From here, I found the link to Asia Dragonfly and later, also bought "A Pocket Guide: Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia & Singapore" by A.G. Orr, and have since found many other links for references.

I am now ready for more.

The term dragonfly is often used generally to refer to both dragonflies and damselflies.  These insects belong to the order Odonata.  There are two main suborders in Odonata: Zygoptera (damselflies) and Anisoptera (dragonflies), and a third suborder, a very small group which is almost extinct, called Anisozygoptera. 

The name Odonata actually refers to the large teeth-like mandibles of both the larva and adult of these creatures.

To differentiate between the two, damselflies are generally very slender while dragonflies are stouter, stronger-flying insects.  As for their forewings and hindwings, they are similar in shape and venation for the damselflies and commonly held closed above the body.  With the dragonflies, however, these wings are more or less dissimilar and commonly held spread out when they are at rest.

To date, I have managed to put a few names to the dragonfly and damselfly species I have captured on digital images.  If you are an odonatist and you do see an error in the identification of species, I sincerely hope you would point it out to me so I could correct it.  I would be happy to learn from you.

I hope to start compiling the checklist for "Odonata of Langkawi" soon.  And I have a few months of catching up to do on what I've got thus far...

Wish me luck!