Common Name : Scarlet Grenadier
Status : Uncommon
Location : Upper Seletar Reservior, Upper Peirce, Tagore Forest
This dragonfly is classified as a common forest species but I have seen the males only at Upper Seletar Reservior and Upper Peirce. The female is less common as I have sighted once at Upper Peirce. The thorax of both sexes are dark brown in colour with yellow stripes. However the male species has a entire red abdomen while the female is brownish in colour.
(Male, Upper Pierce - 28 Jan 2010)
This males species looks quite similar to Agrionoptera Insignis. One way to differentiate is that L. Asiatica has a narrower and straight-sided abdomen.
(Side View Female - Upper Pierce, 12 July 2010)
(Front View Female - Upper Peirce, 12 July 2010)
(Male - Tagore Forest, 4 Sep 2010)
5 comments:
beautiful image! I have seen many females of L. asiatica in India, and very few males, I wonder if there is any scientific explanation behind this? Also, I saw some females roosting together for the nights, and males roost solitary. your blog is amazing!
Aniruddha,
Thanks for dropping by and your kind comments. Strangely, we have more males of L. Asiatica in Singapore. I saw the female only twice and on both occasions, they were flying non-stop. I am interested to know why this is so too :D Will ask my dragonfly expert friend on this.
Male and female L. asiatica are found here in small number (not much different in male to female ratio). But I didn't see roosting behavior in this species. However, I found this behavior in female Potamarcha congener (at least 40-50 individuals in each dry twig) in Thailand.
In Thailand, the same case as the Indian L. asiatica is Rhyothemis variegata, all are female. It indicates that the male is overlooked...If so, the possibility to see the male is close to zero!
@ Anthony, That is strange indeed. I have seen females on more occasions and only sighted males twice.
@ Noppadon, I did not know they roost in numbers either until I saw them. I agree on R. variegata too, females are more commonly seen than males, I have rarely seen males! I'm not sure if the male is overlooked, but sure is not as common as the females. Thanks!
Noppadon, Aniruddha,
Thanks for your comments :D
Post a Comment