Odonata @ Lornie Trail

The order Odonata consists of dragonflies and damselflies is one of the popular insect groups for photography. Having strong chewing mouthparts and four membranous net-veined wings, they are predatory insects

The reservoir edge next to the SICC golf course is one of the best locations in the central catchment area for spotting and watching dragonflies and damselfies. I was very fortunate to meet Tang and Dr Cheong who were conducting a dragonfly walk for the Nature Society of Singapore.

I don't remember if I have seen Lester praemorsus in my previous outings or perhaps I wasn't observant then. Though a few individuals were sighted, I had to wait quite a while for one of them to perch nearer to me for a decent shot -not to get myself wet as well.

This is Chalybeothemis fluviatilis - I guess another first sighting for me. Though it was quite tame with a long perch on the leaf of a aquatic plant, again the distance it was away from me prevented me from taking a close-up shot.

Here is its side view.

A rather common species around that area, Aethriamanta gracilis seems to prefer perching under the sun.

This is a newly emerged (teneral) female Agriocnemis femina which has a different colour from its mature state - one of the reasons why identifying a damsel or dragonfly is not so easy.

This tiny newly emerged damselfly, according to Tang may be a male Agriocnemis nana.

Many thanks to Tang who has helped me to identify some of the species posted here. This is an immature female of Orchithemis pulcherriuma. Can you imagine how a mature female will look like ?

This is a mature female Orchithemis pulcherrima which was shot along the forest trail far away from the waterbody.

We have much to study and learn from this group of insects - their agility and flight patterns in the air, the prowess of their compound eyes in tracking and hunting other insects. Not only they are beautiful, they help us to keep the number of mosquitoes down in parks and forests.

Additional reading and useful related information on dragonfly can be found at Ria's blog here.