Post by boghaunter1 on Nov 25, 2015 13:22:29 GMT -8
Hello... Any Ode lovers left out there?... just thought I would wipe a few cobwebs away from this idle forum!
I acquired the following large, colourful dragonfly a couple of yrs. ago & have narrowed down the i.d. to a female Chlorogomphus caloptera H. Karube, 2013 from central Vietnam... can anyone else confirm the i.d. on this beauty? I have been researching this specimen on & off for the past 2 yrs. & have only recently come up with this i.d.. The genus Chlorogomphus is best known for C. papilio from China; this dragonfly is famous for being extraordinarily beautiful & for being the world's largest dragonfly sp. in terms of having the greatest known wing surface area. The beauty of this related sp., shown here, has a wingspan of 135mm (5.25"). The genus Chlorogomphus currently has around 60 spp. & has a wide distribution occurring from India across to China. Many new spp. have been described in the recent 5-10 yrs. Vietnam currently has about a dozen spp. In almost all cases, but a few, only the females are highly patterned & colourful; the majority of males have completely clear, long, narrow wings showing marked sexual dimorphism. These spectacular dragonflies are said to glide about on warm thermal updrafts, expending little energy, in a manner similar to vultures or hawks. Sometimes when they do occasionally circle closer to the ground, above mountainous jungle roads, the colourful dark orangey brown/black markings silhouettes of the wings can be seen projected on the ground! They are, as can be surmised, very difficult to net... females are more commonly collected when they come down to fly low along the surface of small jungle streams to lay their eggs (or along narrow jungle paths/roads mistaking them for streams)..
Would love to see specimens of this genus from other's collections...
John K.
I acquired the following large, colourful dragonfly a couple of yrs. ago & have narrowed down the i.d. to a female Chlorogomphus caloptera H. Karube, 2013 from central Vietnam... can anyone else confirm the i.d. on this beauty? I have been researching this specimen on & off for the past 2 yrs. & have only recently come up with this i.d.. The genus Chlorogomphus is best known for C. papilio from China; this dragonfly is famous for being extraordinarily beautiful & for being the world's largest dragonfly sp. in terms of having the greatest known wing surface area. The beauty of this related sp., shown here, has a wingspan of 135mm (5.25"). The genus Chlorogomphus currently has around 60 spp. & has a wide distribution occurring from India across to China. Many new spp. have been described in the recent 5-10 yrs. Vietnam currently has about a dozen spp. In almost all cases, but a few, only the females are highly patterned & colourful; the majority of males have completely clear, long, narrow wings showing marked sexual dimorphism. These spectacular dragonflies are said to glide about on warm thermal updrafts, expending little energy, in a manner similar to vultures or hawks. Sometimes when they do occasionally circle closer to the ground, above mountainous jungle roads, the colourful dark orangey brown/black markings silhouettes of the wings can be seen projected on the ground! They are, as can be surmised, very difficult to net... females are more commonly collected when they come down to fly low along the surface of small jungle streams to lay their eggs (or along narrow jungle paths/roads mistaking them for streams)..
Would love to see specimens of this genus from other's collections...
John K.
