A Gem Of An Emerald

It is hard to believe a month have passed since my last entry.  Although it is all rather relative, the days do always seem to go by much faster when you are having a great time!

In the last week, I have had the privilege of meeting with Robin and Wei Ling, who are both with the the National Parks Board in Singapore, and on their holiday in Langkawi.  And as you would expect, we went on an outing to look for dragonflies.  It was certainly enjoyable to have company on my "hunts", especially with friends who are keen odonata enthusiasts themselves.  To be more accurate, they are quite the specialists in the field.

And thanks to them, there are now more new species to add to the checklist for Langkawi.

Here's Robin and Wei Ling taking photos of a dragonfly, the Zygonix iris, before it was released again.

Later, as we were strolling along the path to head out for lunch, out came this dragonfly as we neared a stream. 

This is one of the dragonflies I had spotted a few times previously but do not have any means to identify the species as I could only watch as it appeared out of nowhere, do a few short, quick patrols over the stream and then flew off again towards the forest as swiftly as it had appeared.

This time, we were in luck.  Robin managed to net it.

Out came his kit with the loupe, ruler, and Pocket Guide.  And, of course, all of us had our cameras at the ready.  A few photos were taken, measurements made and we had a good close look of it to ensure correct species identification.

This is a male of the Macromidia genialis of the family Corduliidae, with hindwing length of 29 mm.  In the Pocket Guide, it says that this species is furtive and possiby rare.  The Corduliidae, or the Emeralds, is a family of dragonflies having striking iridescent green eyes, as captured in the photo below.  Most species in this group are generally difficult to find and some are quite rare.

I am glad I did have these few shots of the dragonfly.  I wouldn't know if it was because I was getting hungry or simply because I was just too excited about having an emerald in our hands, or possibly a bit of both, but I did not get too many great photos as my hands had been a bit shaky holding the camera.  Nevertheless, lunch can wait when a rare dragonfly is the reason for it.

In any case, this is a first for a Corduliidae dragonfly for my checklist for Langkawi.

We've certainly caught a gem in our hands!