That Elusive Little Blue Damselfly

I've only recently realised that I've lost the photos in my older blog posts that were transferred from the Multiply blog site.  Not anyone's fault but my own as I probably omitted a step or two when transferring all the posts over.  That was quite a daunting task for me with thousands of things to transfer over and especially when I don't exactly have a high level of IT competency! 

Earlier in the year, I did notice that when I clicked on a photo in an older post, it would link back to the related Multiply blog page but it did not occur to me then to rectify it and that it would be a problem when the Multiply site is shut down.  Now that it's been shut down, these photos have disappeared from the blogs on this site and have gone to cyberspace!

Anyway, I've taken on the painstakingly slow process of updating these older blogs with the photos that should be there and in the process, have come across a few photos that I'd forgotten about.  One that is of importance to note is the photo of the Paracercion calamorum dyeri (Fraser, 1919), from the family Coenagrionidae.

This is the damselfly species that's a new record for Peninsular Malaysia.  You can refer to the earlier post here:  http://not-just-odonata.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-new-record-for-peninsular-malaysia.html

So here are the photos:

I wasn't the one who took these photos though, so the photo credits go to Robin and Wei Ling, as I was with them when we caught this species and they'd snapped these shots.

It is quite an attractive little blue damselfly, isn't it?

A New Record for Peninsular Malaysia

Further to my post last November on specimens that were handed to Ian Choong, it has been confirmed last month by Ian that one of the specimens is that of a damselfly that is a new record for Peninsular Malaysia - the Paracercion calamorum dyeri (Fraser, 1919).

A big thanks to Ian and Robin for this.

Unfortunately, I do not have a good photo of the damselfly or of the specimen and can't post a photo here.  However, to get an idea of what it looks like, it is very similar to the tiny Aciagrion species of damselflies and it would actually be quite difficult to tell the difference between the two species with just the naked eye.  Check out this website to see what this damselfy looks like:  http://www.asia-dragonfly.net/globalResults.php?Species=5150&offset=0

Anyway, it certainly confirms my confusion about some of the species sometimes and the question that I've been asking whenever I have difficulties identifying a particular species due to certain minor features that differ even slightly when compared to what it should be based on details in the 'Pocket Guide for Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore' by A.G. Orr.

And the question that is always on my mind is this:  could some of the species found in Langkawi be similar to those recorded for Thailand but have not been found in other parts of Peninsular Malaysia except here?  Perhaps migrants from Thailand?

A good maybe?

Perhaps the same can be said of some damselfly species that I have often come across but have not been able to actually really confirm correctly for this same reason?  Probably the specimen of the Idionyx species that had slightly different appendages compared to those shown in Pocket Guide is another case in point?  Simply because it is not in the Pocket Guide and would actually be new records for Peninsular Malaysia?

Another maybe?

And because of the close proximity to Thailand, maybe there are more 'siblings' and 'cousins' living here in Langkawi that we are not aware of?


I'd like to think so.....

Hopefully all these questions will be answered in due course.