Same Same But Different

I know, I know... it sounds so cliched!

But then, that is exactly how it is!  This is another tiny blue damselfly and to the naked eye observer, it really does look like just another tiny blue damselfly in the pond.  Almost!

And after sitting there for quite a long time staring into the pond like I'm hoping to see the Loch Ness, but all the while watching all these tiny blue damselflies going about their business, you sort of start noticing vague differences in some of them.  The slightly different shades of blue, slightly bigger, slightly smaller...  something is just not quite the same.....

I must sound like I am crazy!  But that is how I ended up with so many photos of these tiny blue damselflies because there were that many of them in that pond.  And that is how, by chance, I came across this species when sorting through all those photos.

 

 

This damselfly is the Aciagrion borneense of the family Coenagrionidae.  As described in the Pocket Guide, the male has hindwing length of 11.5mm, with very light build and narrow wings and a continuous pale green bar across the posterior part of the head.  The marking on its abdomen is slightly different as well; S8-10 is blue laterally and you can see the black marking in the upper area of S8 and S10 in the above photo.  This species is locally common.

Frankly, I couldn't see all those features through the naked eyes.  And I wasn't hallucinating after all when I thought it looked different.  Nevertheless, it is true that passers-by often think I must be out of my mind and a lunatic, especially when I am crouched there next to a body of water under the hot sun in the heat of the day.  And at first glance, there is nothing there but some water... and maybe some grass.  Perhaps I should get myself kitted up with a fishing rod?

Anyway, cliched?  I rest my case!