Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Tombo!

So what do you do when you're out there in the field and no single bird to be found? I turned my attention towards these dragonflies or トンボ(tombo) in Japanese. These charismatic insects roam the fields of Japan during summer and autumn. Though not so many different species are commonly seen, most of them are pretty colourful and enjoyable to take photos of. I luckily have a colleague who's specialised in dragonfly, so I sent him these photos and he gave me the identification of each individual. Interesting that most of these species of dragonflies can also be found in Thailand as well. I find that most insects have much wider ranges of distribution than birds. The one in the first picture here is a female Orthetrum triangulare melania or Blue-tailed Forest Hawk; the male is actually black and blue, instead of yellow.

PS. I also got the identification for the beautiful blue-rumped dragonfly I've photographed in this post. It is Anax parthenope julius or Lesser Emperor. Its Japanese name is ギンヤンマ(Ginyanma), written in kanji like this 銀蜻蜒; what a complicated Chinese character. I've yet to get any photo of the species this year.


Crocothemis servilia mariannae / Sieboldius albardae / Orthetrum cf. albistylum speciosum / O. triangulare melania

6 comments:

Chris said...

Well I guess we can say you did well... unfortunately I cannot do that over here cause we do not have dragonflies... Well done on this nice set of pictures ;-)

Ryou said...

Great shots. The wings of the dragonflies are beautiful. I once observed a dragonfly in my garden. When it landed, its wings would shift forward in a robotic manner for at least 3-4 forward movements before it remained still. I wonder whether all dragonflies behave in the same way? I shall observe them more closely next time...

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said...

Thanks a lot Chris and Ryou!
The first time for me to know that dragonfly doesn't exist in Iceland!
Ryou > That's a very delicate observation! Guess I have to try watching them carefully next time.

Ryou said...

It was my first time seeing it too. Do share with us if you have observed anything like that too. I'm curious to know. :-)

Ari said...

Lovely shots of Dragonflies, almost same species as the one found in Malaysia.

Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok said...

OK I'll try more dragonfly-watching next time!
Thanks a lot Ari, for your kind comment.