Saturday 10 July 2010

A Banded Hooktail

It is hard to believe so many days have gone by since I last jotted down any of my thoughts on anything.

Seriously, I can't imagine what could have taken up so much of my time recently.  I guess it is a little bit of everything and you know how everything sometimes just happen all at once such that you would be done in by the time you are all done for the day.

And as you can guess, because of everything else, I have not been spending as much time as I would like going out there looking for dragonflies.  I can certainly feel the need to spend more time with nature.  I just have not been getting enough of being close to nature and it is driving me insane!

Anyway, there was this one morning when I did get out there and sat next to a stream to listen to the sound of water as it flowed and gurgled its way through over the rocky bed. 

What could be sweeter?

Perched on a rock nearby was a dragonfly, apparently doing the same thing as I was.

At first glance I had thought it to be the Ictinogomphus decoratus but out of the blue, it hit me that this dragonfly seems to be much smaller in size.  I couldn't tell immediately what else made it different so I took a few photos to get a better look.

You can imagine the surprise and excitement when it dawned on me that I was not looking at the Decorative Tiger but an entirely different species altogether.

 

 

This is the Paragomphus capricornis of the family Gomphidae.  This dragonfly has hindwing length of 22-24mm, with orangy-yellow and black banding.  It is a small and robust dragonfly and the males have long scimitar-like superior appendages.

 

 

This species is widespread in Peninsular Malaysia, yet this is the first time I have come across it.

Of late, days like this seem to be fewer and far between.  I certainly do miss going on my jaunts along these streams and forest trails.....

 

 

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