Monday, June 4, 2012

Nam Nao: A Year in the Making (May)



Location 1: Helicopter Pad Lake, Nam Nao National Park, Petchabun. 
Date: Saturday,  26th May, 2012.
Weather: Overcast for most of the day, then torrential rain (stopping me visiting the headquarters)
Expectations of recording additional species (for my list): Low
Leech bites: 16 (my record, unfortunately!)


A vast improvement over last month's weather, May turned out to be OK. Though it eventually turned to heavy rain (it seems really early this year), I managed to spot four new additions for the year, and one new species for the lake (though I know Noppadon Makbun has previously spotted the species there). New for the year, are: Ceriagrion chaoi, Rhyothemis plutonia, Rhyothemis triangularis and Trithemis festiva. New for the lake is Indothemis carnatica. Like my previous visit, as I was preparing to visit the river at the headquarters, the heavens opened and it would have been a pointless task visiting. I will return in a couple of weeks and make a beeline for the headquarters.

Here are a few decent photos I managed to get last time out:

These are the best natural photos of Rhyothemis plutonia I have taken. He dropped down right in front of me, as the winds picked up. He held onto a strand of grass for dear life ... even though it was extremely windy, these came out very well indeed.




I saw two male Ceriagrion chaoi on this day, and this one was happy to let me shoot away in front of him. Luckily, though it was windy, I managed to get decent shots.



There were many many females of Pseudothemis jorina. I saw more females today than I have seen in all my time in the field. They were very difficult to get anywhere near though.


Nam Nao Helicopter Pad (added species from the last visit, bold; new species for the lake, blue; species not seen from last visit, red)

Fam. Coenagrionidae
Aciagrion tillyardi (Laidlaw, 1919) ♂ ♀ [common]
Agriocnemis femina (Brauer, 1868) ♂ ♀ [common]
Agriocnemis nana (Laidlaw, 1914)  [very common]
Agriocnemis pygmaea (Rambur, 1842) ♂ ♀ [common]
Argiocnemis rubescens rubeola Selys, 1877) ♀ [♂ 2, ♀ 1]
Ceriagrion chaoi (Schmidt, 1964) ♂ [2]
Ceriagrion indochinense Asahina, 1967  [uncommon]
Ischnura senegalensis (Rambur, 1842) ♂ ♀ [fairly common]
Onychargia atrocyana Selys, 1865 ♂ ♀ [extremely common, especially copula]
Pseudagrion rubriceps rubriceps (Selys, 1876)

Fam. Platycnemididae
Coeliccia chromothorax (Selys, 1891)  [2, 1]
Copera ciliata (Selys, 1863) ♂ ♀ [extremely common]
Copera marginipes (Rambur, 1842) ♂ [common]

Fam. Protoneuridae
Prodasineura autumnalis (Fraser, 1922) ♂ ♀ [extremely common]

Fam. Gomphidae
Ictinogomphus decoratus (Selys, 1854) ♂ [common]

Fam. Libellulidae
Acisoma panorpoides panorpoides (Rambur, 1842) ♂ ♀ [uncommon]
Brachydiplax farinosa (Krüger 1902) ♂ ♀ [♂ common]
Brachythemis contaminata (Fabricius, 1793) ♂ ♀ [common]
Diplacodes trivialis (Rambur, 1842) ♂ ♀ [fairly common]
Indothemis limbata (Selys, 1891) ♂ ♀ [♂ extremely common]
Indothemis carnatica (Fabricius, 1798) ♂ [2] 
Neurothemis fulvia (Drury, 1773) ♂  [uncommon]
Orthetrum chrysis (Selys, 1891) ♂ [fairly common]
Orthetrum sabina sabina (Drury, 1770) ♂ [common]
Pseudothemis jorina Förster, 1904 ♀ [common]
Rhodothemis rufa (Rambur, 1842)  ♂ [1]
Rhyothemis plutonia (Selys, 1883) ♂♀ [♂ very common, ♀ 1, part of a copula]
Rhyothemis triangularis (Kirby, 1889) ♂ [♂ 3]
Tholymis tillarga (Fabricius, 1798) ♂ [fairly common]
Trithemis aurora (Burmeister, 1839) ♂ ♀ [extremely common]
Trithemis festiva (Rambus, 1842) ♂ [2]

Next visit: mid June 
(primarily to visit the river at the headquarters)

5 comments:

  1. Brilliant shots and fascinating stuff.

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  2. Hi Gerry. Thanks for your comments. I hope I can make a full year ... my first planned research! Take care, Dennis.

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  3. Excellent shots of Rhyothemis plutonia, did you manage any shots of Rhyothemis triangularis?

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  4. Hi Oleg (I think).
    I didn't get any photos of R. triangularis this time around, as they were scarce. In the next few months there will be lots of them. I did get some good photos of the male at Nam Nao helicopter pad, last year. Hopefully I can improve on them this time round ...

    http://www.thaiodonata.blogspot.com/2011/07/131-rhyothemis-triangularis-kirby-1889.html

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  5. OLeg in action here : http://carnivorousockhom.blogspot.com/2012/04/odonata-of-cambodian-coastal-regions-in.html

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