Exact reference to this
paper published as hardcopy:
Kosterin, O. E., N. E. Vikhrev. 2008. Odonatological field notes of two
January trips to SE Thailand, in 2005 and 2006. Malangpo 22: 222-236.
Odonatological field notes
of two January trips to SE Thailand, in 2005 and 2006.
Oleg E. Kosterin
Institute of Cytology & Genetics of
Siberian Division of Russian Academy of Sciences, Acad. Lavrentiev ave. 10,
Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
kosterin@bionet.nsc.ru
Nikita E. Vikhrev
Tallinskaya str. 32 corpus 1, app. 139, Moscow,
123458, Russia.
hydrophorus@rambler.ru
Abstract. A report about Odonata met
during two trips to SE Thailand (Chon Buri, Rayong and Chanthaburi Provinces)
in January 2005 and January 2006 is given in a form of field notes of the
former author, along with his impressions of a Siberian first time occurred in
tropics. The shortened version of the text concerning the trip in 2005
has been already published in WDA’s Agrion 10(1): 5-7. Observations of 2005 and
2006 are compared. Aciagrion borneense Ris,
1911, A. pallidum Selys, 1891, Onychargia atrocyana Selys, 1865, Pseudothemis jorina Forster, 1904, Anax guttatus (Burmeister, 1839), Epophthalmia were for the first time
recorded in Chon Buri Province; Aristocypha
fenestrella (Rambur, 1842), Heliocypha biforata (Selys, 1859), Prodasineura autumnalis (Fraser, 1927), Coeliccia
yamasakii Asahina, 1984, Brachythemis
contaminata (Fabricius, 1793), Brachydiplax
farinosa Kruger, 1902, Trithemis
aurora (Burmeister, 1839), Neurothemis
intermedia atalanta Ris, 1919 in Rayong Province, and Ceriagrion
praetermissum Lieftink, 1929 and
Hydrobasileus croceus (Brauer, 1867)
in Chanthaburi Province, but all these records except for A. borneense and A. guttatus
for Chon Buri Province has been already published in the mentioned publication
of the first author. For these species, a list of the collected or observed
specimens is provided.
Introduction
In January 2005 and January 2006 we
made trips to almost the same areas of SE Thailand, during which we eagerly
observed and photographed odonata and also made some collections. A report of
the 2005 trip has been already published by the first author in ‘WDA’s Agrion’
(Kosterin, 2006). Bro. Dr. Amnuay Pinratana and Prof. Bastiaan Kiauta kindly
proposed to reproduce this report in ‘Malangpo’, that we accepted with
gratitude. But instead of reproducing it verbatim, we would like to provide a
more extended (original) version of the report on the 2005 trip and to add that
for the 2006 trip. A list of new provincial records is also given. The trips
were undertook on the initiative, leadership and funds by Nikita Vikhrev, the
odonatological observations and collections were made by both authors equally
and cooperatively, while the field notes are written from the point of view of
Oleg Kosterin.
1. January 2005. A
Journey of a dilettante.
An about twice shortened version has been
already published:
Kosterin, 2006. The journey of a diletante.
WDA’s Agrion 10 (1): 5-7.
“Incomplete is a life of a human
being which did not visit tropics”.
Academician Krasnov
Entomology has arisen in quite high
latitudes and achieved there impressive advances, as most of the insect fauna
of these areas (except for some remote regions of Siberia and N America) is
well assessed. At the same time it is clear that to get a more or less adequate
notion about the insect world, any northern entomologist must overcome his/her
high latitude cretinism and visit tropics, which are the core of insect
diversity. Bearing this in mind, I with an enormous gratitude accepted an
invitation by Dr. Nikita Vikhrev from Moscow, an incredibly energetic
businessmen, photographer, journalist and biologist combined within the same
person, to join his winter trip to Thailand (at his expense) to be something
like an insect guide in that country, with a special attention to Odonata as
his new and my old hobbies. Needless to say that, having dealt most of my life
just with scarce Siberian dragonflies (with short recent escapades to South
Korea, Japan, Germany and France thanks to the courtesy of Drs. Lee, Inoue,
Dumont, Reinhard, Schneider and Papazyan), I had no idea about that country and
its famously rich and splendidly studied fauna. But of course this could not
comprise a reason to refute such an incredible invitation. Two circumstances
let me hope that situation would not be so awful: that there would be a dry
season and that we were going to visit not the North of Thailand, so popular
among odonatologists, but just a plain touristic area of Pattaya, which is
mostly devoid of rich primary biota. I guess reports of visit to such
uninteresting places rarely appear in press and in this respect this one might
deserve some attention.
So, on January 24, 2005 we four:
Nikita, his daughter Polina, his friend Boris Bronstein and me, disembark from
a plain in the airport of Bangkok and took a long way to Pattaya. We passed
through the enormous city of Bangkok for ages until were able to see along the
road an infinitely vast, perfectly flat and rather boring land with some
‘plain’ grass mostly burnt out by the sun, coco palms and immense water
reservoirs, of which we argued if they were rice fields inundated for the
winter or not. Close to the end of our way, somewhere at Si-Racha, strange
sharp mountains appeared suddenly which were covered with pretty dry forests,
reminding Russian forests in October, that was hard to aware under hot weather,
but these mountains disappeared as suddenly as appeared. Darkness fell, and at
last we arrived to Pattaya which looked for me as a huge city as well. We were
accomodated in Natural Park Resort, on Jomtien Beach, which looked no other
than paradise. Gekkos were the first representatives of local fauna which
greeted us, while, judging by the amount of their excrements, all the nocturnal
insects seemed to have been already eaten by them.
Many acquaintances of mine who managed to visit tropics, both Russian and foreign, reported disappointedly that “there are no insects in tropics!”. Indeed, in the short Siberian spring and summer, if the air manages to be heated to 20oC and above, it starts boiling with insects (not least among them being mosquitoes), regardless if it is day or night. It seems that for some reason tropics support about the same amount of insect individuals but their activity is redistributed round the year (often for the same species: the fact, learnt from the atlas by Hämäläinen & Pinratana, that most odonate species may be found in Thailand round the year struck me much). So I was prepared to some disappointment. The reality appeared not so bad: at day the amount and diversity of insect looked quite reasonable, both not boring of and not bringing about an emotional and informational shock. I would say that Thailand in winter and at daytime most reminded the Crimea in summer, both in respect to weather and insects. At night those informants of absence of insects would appear rather correct, but this does not relate much to odonates.
Next day we started to investigate the hotel surroundings. First we walked along some patch of land, yet not used for hotel construction, out of the beach and discovered a chain of very shallow pools with muddy banks, trampled with zebu cattle, along a road being parallel to the Jomtien Beach. At their banks there flew and rested numerous small and pretty Brachythemis contaminata, of both sexes, a dragonfly which we then found everywhere we come. Quite a number of males also flew over the water. Next in tall grass nearby we startled out some elegant Orthetrum sabina, which from distance at first seemed me to be some gomphids. However, this was the only species which I was able to recognise right in the field, basing of my scarce knowledge. We failed to get relevant literature in advance (next evening was devoted to attempts to found some literature on dragonflies in local bookstores, which failed nicely), so most of odonate species remained enigmatic for me until I return to Novosibirsk. There species were identified using the reprint edition of Asahina’s collected papers devoted to the Thai Odonata (Asahina, 1993), the Guide for the genera of the World fauna by the wing venation by Belyshev & Haritonov (1977), with reference to the colour photographs published in the Atlas of the dragonflies of Thailand by Hämäläinen & Pinratana (1999), the Thai book ‘Dragonflies and damselflies from Thailand’ by Pisuth Ek-Amnuay (1996), the Field guide to the dragonflies of Hong Kong (2002), and in a book ‘Dragonflies of the world’ by Silsby (2001). Identification was complicated by the fact, quite common with amateur odonatologists, that a number of species were registered only as photographs, as we all happened to be eager photographers. It was Dr. Matti Hämäläinen who has patiently confirmed or suggested identification of many photographs and specimens by E-mail. Further on in the text, if otherwise not stated, I will mention species names as if I knew them when saw.
We spent most of that hot day
exploring those muddy pools. In addition to the two mentioned species, I
noticed several Pantala flavescens (I
knew it at that time as well) flying high above the bank and spotted one
female. On the grass, I collected a young not fully coloured female of Crocothemis servillia. Then I crossed
the road and moved to one of that agricultural reservoir surrounded by palms,
under which some cabins were seen. At its bank, with partly inundated herbs, I
found the same B. contaminata, one
mature male of C. servilia, and in
the herbs hid numerous tiny Agriocnemis
f. femina, the species I knew after Japan. That was all for that day. But
in the evening, hunting for danaid butterflies with my camera, I discovered a
great place nearby: a swamp with tall grass, some ferns, Typha and Phragmites,
surrounded with a tiny forest, almost right on the Jomtien Beach, between B. O.
Guesthouse and Metro Jomtien Condotel. I bet it would exist no more than for a
couple of years and some hotel is to be constructed on this place. There was no
dragonfly or damselfly in twilight on this swamp, but it was promising for the
next day.
Next
day, January 26, we departed for this swamp in the morning, and returned to it
about the noon. Results were not so diverse but interesting. On a grassy edge
of the grove which surrounded the swamp, there fluttered a dozen of painted
females of young Rhyothemis variegata,
none of them being seen on the very swamp. On the swamp, there were A. femina in dense grass and quite many Ceriagrion auranticum around the swamp
margins, in grass and among bushes, where some tiny patches of open water were
present. I managed to make one successful shot and miss an excitingly slender
orange damselfly with a greenish pattern; its built allowed me to guess that it
was some Aciagrion, and indeed it
later appeared to be A. pallidum. On
a sunny tree branch facing the swamp about 3 m high I noticed a perching
dragonfly of quite a characteristic shape and coloration; I missed it but am
sure it was Lathrecista asiatica
(that is of no surprise of course). And a number of individuals of O. sabina were startled from grass here
and there (but no B. contaminata).
This dragonfly was also quite common in ruderal places between some tree groves
elsewhere nearby. On Muddy Pools there were the same set of species as the day
before (including some mature males of C.
servilia) plus a male Diplacodes
trivialis photographed by Nikita.
In the afternoon we were taken to a
regular excursion to the ‘Tropical Garden’ Nong Nuch near Pattaya. Although
beautiful, it gave nothing to our interest but I managed to escape from our
attentive guides towards a sharp hill covered with rather green than dry
forest. It took a considerable fast walk across abandoned hot alleys. At the
hill foot, right on the margin of the garden, in a depression of a gentle
grassy slope there was a small artificial pond with rather clear water. At the
banks of this pond, along with regular A.
femina and B. contaminata, Acisoma p. panorpoides were numerous,
with their curious body shape (of course easily recognisable). There were also
one or two males of Pseudagrion
microcephalum, which by general appearance and behaviour (long flights low
above open water) strongly resembled our Enallagma
cyathigerum, but were somewhat larger and more cautious. Besides, while
capturing A. panorpoides, I occasionally
discovered in the net a young and soft male of Ceriagrion indochinense. At last I reached the woody hill and found
an old and desolate road, grown up with weeds, going through the forest along
the foot of the slope, and walked along it for half an our, to and back. There
were some libellulids: I met several hovering P. flavescens and several softly fluttering Rhyothemis p. phyllis. Besides, I startled a male
(well-recognisable for the specific wing spots) and captured a female of Tholymis tillarga. I felt I become too
late and reluctantly abandoned the forest, but unfortunately arrived to our
team too early and had to watch the elephant show.
Next day, January 27, was devoted to
a sea journey to ‘the Coral Island’ of Ko Lan. It was a beautiful hilly island
with landscapes looking pretty Mediterranean, and so again strongly reminded me
the Crimea, the most popular place of summer vacations of rather well being
Soviet people. An impression strengthened by the fact that some of those, as
well as their numerous New Russian children, were already here as well, on
local beaches. I had a walk uphill and saw a number of P. flavescens hovering far above slopes and roads, beyond the reach
of my net. Some, however, perched on high dry tree branches. Descending down to
the beach they became more and more numerous, and I observed even a small swarm
of dozens of individuals. From above I fixed a large swimming pool, which
appeared long abandoned and had shallow dirty water with slime of
cyanobacteria. Its concrete banks were full of libellulid exuviae, and the
dragonflies were also here and numerous. At the banks there were a lot of Trithemis festiva [AN ERROR! -these were Indothemis
carnatica] and Macrodiplax cora (I remembered how this
species looks like on photos but thought it was much smaller). They both
perched on bushes and branches, but the latter were more cautious and were for
longer time on the wing. As expected, there were also some B. contaminata and O. sabina.
Several large bright-red libellulids ranging along the banks, there certainly
were some C. servilia but maybe
anything else as well; and of course many P.
falvescens. One male D. trivialis
ranged low along the water margin. There were also coenagrionids occupying
slime mounds protruding from the water: quite many Ischnura senegalensis and few
P. microcephalum. At one place near the pool among bushes, there restlessly
fluttered a school of R. phyllis, all
seemed to be females. So, the swimming pool mismanagement provided excellent
refuge for odonates. Nikita found a very small and extremely dirty pool near
the very beach, with a patch of reed and large dead leaves covering the bottom,
which harboured quite a number of I.
senegalensis, some C. servilia
and one perching and ranging male of Potamarcha
congener, as well as a male of Brachydyplax
farinosa which I did not seen but which Nikita has photographed.
One
January 28 Boris and me tried to visit the lake at Bang Phra and the
Chan-ta-Then Waterfalls nearby, both recommended by Matti
Hämäläinen, but although some people in the hotel kindly wrote
those names on a sheet of paper in Thai, we failed to do this: although the
driver of open taxi tried to discuss in English the matters of comparative
sexuality of Thai and Russian women, he seemed to fail to understand where we
would like to get to, and transported us right to the Khao Khieo Open Zoo. We
did not complain much: while Boris took photos of birds in the aviarium I had
an opportunity to make a close acquaintance with that completely dry forest on
those sharp hills. This was something I never experienced: a pretty lifeless
forest, deep autumn to my allusions, at so extremely hot weather. At the edge
of such a slope forest near the metallic net of a huge aviarium, there was a
territory of a beautiful, deep cherry-brown male of Neurothemis fulvia. He was too cautious for me to take a picture
(especially because I used a wrong mode of autofocus, iESP instead of SPOT, as
still not acquented well with a digital camera), and I spent maybe an hour in
vain attempts. He perched on rather high stocks or branches, being frightened
he disappeared above the forest but either appeared on a lawn in front of the
aviarium or on the same edge. Once I saw how it flew above a small artificial
pool and touched the water surface for a wink. Later I suddenly saw a female on
the aviarium wall and even managed to photographed it, but it disappeared
immediately. Nearby there was another new species for me, and even a new
family. It was Prodasineura autumnalis.
These elegant creatures (males) kept to grassy banks of a lotic ditch. As
startled, they flew above the surface for a while and then landed on short
grass hanging over the water, periodically slowly half-opening and suddenly
folding their wings. When I later checked my photos, both digital and slide, I
was struck to see that one individual differed strongly by definitely pruinosed
sides of the pterothorax and lower appendages, being absolutely identical in
all other respects: body built, pattern and size. Let you see:
http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/odonata/protoneuridae/prodasineurablue.htm
I later found no mentions of such a feature in
this species. Needless to say that I did not collect it; and at all had no
intention to show the net in this zoo, especially with two gibbons, a white one
and a black one, wandering and shouting on the opposite side of the ditch.
Besides, there were scarce B. contaminata
and blue Pseudagrion on this ditch.
Upon
return to our hotel, in short twilight, I had a walk to the Forest Swamp and
Muddy Pools to learn if somebody demonstrated any crepuscular flight. In shade
of the tree grove surrounding the Swamp I spotted an erratically flying male of
Pseudothemis jorina, and in another
similar place a fastly and very low flying female of D. trivialis. In Muddy Pools I observed nothing but a large lonely
bat flying above them.
Three
next days were devoted to a visit to two small national parks in the east, in
order to see a bit of a true Nature. We rented a minibus with a very smart,
friendy and smily driver named Nom (I recollect that so Tolkien’s people called
Finarfin, an elf, and in their language this meant ‘wisdom’). By the road to
the East we made a short stop for a lunch at some village about 5 km W of
Clayeng, Rayong Province, surrounded with uniform Gewea plantations. At the road and deep in plantations there were
digged rather deep holes with pools, covered with dead Gewea leaves on banks and bottom. There we found bright-yellow
marked males and ovipositing tandems of Copera
marginipes, several males of Brachydiplax
chalybaea and fewer males of C.
servilia. Besides, Nikita managed to photograph Neurothemis fluctuans and I saw some blue and blue-faced male of Pseudagrion.
At last we arrived to the
easternmost point of our trip, Khao-Khitchakut National Park in Chanthaburi
Province. The headquarters (12.83967o N, 102.12119o E)
and bungalows were situated in a lovely place, with a large pond with many
bays, lawns, and numerous trees which were labelled with so diverse names and
belonged to so many families (Euphorbiaceae were most frequent) but looked for
us almost the same: with similar smooth bark and hard glossy integrate pointed
leaves. I immediately directed myself to the Krating Waterfalls. It was an
evening already. Right beneath the waterfalls, in a damp place among large
boulders I saw two red-legged males of Copera
vittata. Then I started to rise up the torrent, which was quite weak this
season so I preferred to climb up right on smoothly excarved rocks of its bed
rather than along a smooth path nearby. Along this way I managed to notice two
ghost-like creatures secretly keeping to shaded damp rocks which looked exactly
as I imagined the damsels of a tropical rainforest. Indeed these were pale,
striped with darker grey, males of Protosticta,
and on the good detailed photographs I made they looked indistinguishable from P. k. khaosoidaoensis, the species to be
expected at this locality. When I reached the high waterfalls, they were
illuminated with the last red sunbeams and no more odonates were observed. At
about midnight, a male D. trivialis
appeared among those very few insects which were attracted by numerous lamps.
Next
early morning, January 30, I investigated the large pond at the headquarters,
which Nikita explored last evening. There were a lot of Copera ciliata, and all the individuals photographed and observed
were females, either mature with a white background or young with a reddish
one. I met some old friends B.
contaminata and I. senegalensis,
but they were not numerous. In this place, we could not collect and our records
were restricted to photographs. I have photographed a blue-faced male with
abdominal segment X black above and appendages shorter than it, so it should be
Pseudagrion australasiae. But last
evening Nikita had been photographed obviously P. wiliamsoni, with a yellowish face. In several hundred metres
from the pond, on a neatly cut bush I noticed and photographed a female of P. autumnalis.
Later in the morning I rose again to
the Krating Waterfalls. In the lower part I encountered a young male of Trithemis aurora, while Nikita
photographed a mature male and also saw a female P. jorina. Having reached the upper fall, I found a path through
bamboo thickets on a very steep slope, climbed up along it and entered the
stream valley above the waterfalls. At last, I happened to get to the tropical
forest as I imagined it from my childhood: with a great diversity of ferns,
from giant ones with leaves about 2 m long to tiny membranaceous
Hymenophyllaceae and some pseudodichotomically branching Gleicheniaceae, with
crispy Selaginella, with horned Gasteracantha spiders and of course with
diverse exotic butterflies including crowds of deeply violet-brown Euploea, hidy Melanitis, some strange hesperiids and lycaenids, and even such charismatic ones as Lamproptera curius swallowtail and the
huge Parthenos (but one species, Neptis clinia, looked as if just having
escaped from our Siberian birch forests). The stream run rather calmly, partly
over smooth rocks and partly through a sandy bed. The sun had appeared from
clouds rather not long ago, and at first there were no dragonflies. Then I
noticed a Vestalis (V. g. gracilis)
slipping and disappearing among herbs. For an hour I spend there I noticed
three individuals and captured one female, although it appeared quite difficult
for them being so cautious and secrety. Then I was struck to see Aristocypha fenestrella. I saw a
chlorocyphid for a first time and expected that creatures with so curious a
built should demonstrate some curious behaviour. But these violet-black males
just sat on branches or stones or flew for some distance, and quite allowed to
photograph them. Then something resembling a corduliid flew fastly by me. I
start to look for such things and soon see it again: this dragonfly flew in
tree shade about a metre above rocky parts of the stream, with some stops in
the air, and was fairly hard to be netted. Quite surprisingly, after a while I
managed to capture a tandem. Keeping the pair in hand I start to realise that
they were not corduliids but Zygonix iris malayana. I thought these creatures
to be closely pertained only to waterfalls but later learned that in Indochina
they are quite widespread. Lastly, I was astonished to see a very large
dragonfly with wide orange wings which start to impetously and elegantly fly to
and fro over quite a long section of the river at about 3 m high (for me it
looked like a giant Sympetrum croceolum).
I had no hope to get it but unexpectedly succeeded. It turned to be a young
female of Hydrobasileus croceus (and
I recognised it), perhaps my best capture for this trip. Being in such a
fantastic place I strongly realised that I was too late to return in time. I
started to descend the valley by a good path, accompanied with a plastic water
pipe, but somehow lost it and walked over the stream rocky bed. As expected, I
appeared right above the main waterfalls, and saw leisurily wandering Thai
tourists far beneath. Besides, I saw also many A. fenestrella and Z. iris
right near me, quite in sunshine, which I did not see both in the evening and
morning. I had to climb down through bamboo thickets beside the waterfall,
brachiating as a gibbon (this was indeed the only possible way of moving
there), and although the destination was so close, several times had to change
the direction, lost my net handle, tore my trousers into many pieces, and was
tired enormously. What I said myself was ‘not relax immediately when come to a
good place!’, nevertheless when I came to the pool beneath the waterfall, I
slid and fell upside down into it together with my bag, to moist the camera,
tickets, passport etc. (fortunately, all this worked later), to a great
surprise of the tourists. I made a lion-cloths from my shirt and bravely
descend to our bungalow, found out that my friends had already checked out, and
then themselves quite relaxed in the local small restaurant. They goggled at
me, and Boris said that he sees absolutely a happy man.
In
the afternoon we drove half way back to the west and arrived to the Khao-Chamao
- Khao-Wong National Park (Rayong Province). It surprised us by a great number
of officers at headquarters (many riding motorollers) in almost military form
and mostly with quite gloomy faces (and this impression appeared wrong), so
that it resembled rather headquarters of some military base. After
accomodation, we made an excursion to the local pond, quite small, and with
some water chestnut rosettes floating on the surface. At a bush there were a
couple of perching males of C. marginipes,
I noticed a male P. autumnalis, some
blue Pseudagrion male, a male and
female of T. aurora, and encountered
a weak and uninterestingly looking libellulid female (in our country I would
took it for some Sympetrum) which appeared
to be Neurothemis a. atalanta. Boris
and Nikita saw a small and handsom libellulid with later appeared to be a male
of Neurothemis tullia. In twilight I
visited the lower reaches of the stream (in front of the border of the zone
restricted for night) and saw a lonely dragonfly flying above the valley and
tree crowns, it could be either a small aeshnid, a macromiid, Zygonyx, or God knows what else
Early
next (January 31) morning we depart, separately, for the waterfalls and came
back to the noon, now in time. The valley looked more gloomy than the Krating
Waterfalls as well as the headquarters: the river fell more gently and hence
the forest bordered it more densely and it was partly overshaded. Besides, the
weather was overcast and the sun only rarely appeared. Once in a short
sunlight, in one of few small openings at the bank I saw a male A. fenestrella and a male T. aurora activated, while in a boulder
shade met with a male of C. vittata,
while Nikita photographed a young, still grey, male of this species. And that
was all for dragonflies.
We
departed from the Reserve and, making almost a loop from the main road,
returned nearly to the same mountain range and made an excursion on the banks
of the Khao-Chamao River just south of Khao-Chamao village. It was quite large
and nearly stagnant, with some muddy pools on the technically disturbed ground
at the bank. We hoped to see some gomphids but failed. Instead, we found quite
a rich set of libellulids. Over the water there were males of C. servilia perching on protruding
stems, and one male of Brachydiplax
farinosa (identified later by the body pattern and the number of
antenodals), O. sabina were startled
from the grass, over a muddy pool we observed a male of D. trivialis, and there were a lot of young and some mature males
of T. aurora, the former concentrated
in grass at the bridge (where I also caught a female C. servilia). Several times we saw also a cautious individual of N. fluctuans. In a steep bushy part of
the bank we observed P. autumnalis of
both sexes, occupying bush and grass leaves hanging just above the water. As
usually, we saw a blue male of some Pseudagrion.
In the evening we returned to Pattaya.
On
February 1st, I managed to visit the large lake in Bang Phra, Chon
Buri Province. Perhaps all large flat lakes around the World look alike, so it
was rather a boring place, which quite could be confused with some steppen
lakes of West Siberia. There was a wide surrounding plain grown up with ‘plain
grass and weeds’, where only scarce females of B. contaminata were met with. The very lake seemed to have strongly
step back in the dry season: its banks were just mud with immense dead large
snails and some patches of high grass and reed. After some useless wandering, I
found some small valley of something like a dried out tributary, with a chain
of tiny pools along, and went ‘upstream’. I saw several O. sabina perching and several P.
flavescens flying. A male of P.
congener occupied surroundings of a small pool and, although cautious,
could be photographed since returned to the pool again and again.. I also saw a
male of Neurothemis tullia. Quite
apart from the lake, in shade of several trees I startled from a grass a male T. tillarga. And that was all.
In the evening, I made a walk to
Muddy Pools in twilight and on the trunk of a large tree growing in a dozen of
metres off the water I found two closely set large exuviae of Epophthalmia sp. about 1.5 m above the
ground, which I identified by the mask split into several long teeth together
with a general macromiid appearance (and this character I remembered from
Belyshev’s ‘Dragonflies of Siberia’). No crepuscular activity of anything but
some strangely shouting bird and stridulating crickets was observed.
Last day of our presence in Pattaya,
February 2, in the morning I first visited the Forest Swamp. There were the
same R. variegata, O. sabina, A. femina
and C. auranticum but I also found
two freshly emerged and still soft very interesting odonate females: a very
stout coenagrionid which later, by its wing venation was identified by me as Onychargia atrocyana, and this appeared
true (this is an arboreal species but the female was found in grass), and a
large brownish libellulid with a bright white stripe on its thorax: Rhodothemis rufa. In the afternoon I
revisited the Swamp and collected another fresh female O. atrocyana.
Between these short excursions, we
undertook a long sea trip to a peninsula in south-east. The only toponym which
we saw by our own eyes was an announcement that this was Sai-Kaew Beach, the
coordinnates were 12o44’31.39’’ N, 100o50’31.84’’ E. In
GoogleMap we found that this place is situated N of Ban Bang Sare. (In
(Kosterin, 2005) this locality was wrongly considered as situating on Ko Khram
Island). Although the sandy beaches were nearly the same, vegetation differed
greatly from that on Ko Lan, since most of the land was covered with dense
thickets of low trees and bushes or, at flat places, a forest of huge spiny
bamboo arranged in bunches many metres in diametre. Several large and deep
holes were long ago dug out in this forest near the beach, and now they were
ponds with steep slopes. The dragonfly fauna appeared to be rich and diverse.
Certainly there were P. flavescens
restlessly flying, but among them I also noticed a male of Tramea transmarina euryale, which was impossible to catch, and
startled from a grass a male T. tillarga.
There were several bright-red males of C.
servilia, shining purple male of T.
aurora and many blackberry-violet ones of T. festiva and few B.
contaminata. Some O. sabina and
females of T. festiva were found
perching on grass nearby. At one side of one of the ponds, there were three
females of R. phyllis and one female
of R. variegata (I did not see any
male of this genus throughout the whole trip). They four occupied protruding
branches of a dead bush at the water and were very cautious. When a human
appeared on the bank, they started fluttering over a bushy bank, noticeably
keeping together. The individuals of R.
phyllis did it until the human disappear (once I was patient to wait for
half an hour) but the female of Rh.
variegata after a while invariably sat down on a perch, abandoning its
companions. At the same bush perched also very cautious male of P. jorina. Of zygopterans, there were
quite many common I. senegalensis
(which looked larger and more bluish than on Ko Lan), and a story repeated when
we with Nikita encountered different representatives of the same genus: I
collected and photographed a female of Agriocnemis
pygmaea while he photographed a female of another Agriocnemis, and judging from the pattern and prothorax shape seen
on the photograph, it could be A. minima
but absence of dark humeral stripes on the prothorax makes it doubtful. This
specimen was not collected. Noteworthy that no A. femina was observed.
Besides, near one of the ponds found
a male of some Ceriagion sp. Later it
occurred that its appendages looked like those of C. indochinense,
but its abdomen was not yellow but bright-red above and orange at sides
(see http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/odonata/coenagrionidae/ceriagrion.htm
and also files ceriagrion2, ceriagrion3 and
ceriagrion4 on the same site), and the body size was larger. This specimen is
now with Dr. Matti Hämäläinen. Closer to the evening I walked
along some road uphill and saw a lot of P.
congener (and nothing more) on its sides, few males and many females, many
of which were perching on branches of spiny bamboo, for some reason obviously
congregated to a certain section of the road. Leaving this island, I forgot the
very net, so it and its handle turned to be sacrificed in different Thailand
provinces, as a promise of return.
Early next morning we departed back to Bangkok and already in a queue for registration were informed that our flight is postponed for a day. The responsible Krasair company offered us to be accommodated in the a hotel in Bangkok downtown, so we were granted with a day in the capitol, which Nikita decided to devote to the only purpose: to dig out the odonatological literature. We explored about five bookstores, in the first or second in a huge supermarket in the centre, we found the Thai book by Pisuth Ek-Amnuay (1996), illustrated by photographs, that was already something. At last, in the University bookstore, they said us that they have the Atlas by Hämäläinen & Pinratana (1999) and also a reprint edition of collected papers by Syosiro Asahina (1993) on Thailand, undertaken by Bro. Pinratana, about existence of which I had no idea and which in fact helped me most. On this pathetic note our trip came to its end.
So, we met with only 45 odonate
species (a bit less than a total of 49 species occurring in the part of
Novosibirsk Province east of the Ob’ River), of which there were no aeshnids,
gomphids, corduliids, euphaeids, and macromiids were represented only by two
identical exuvia. At the same time, since we visited rather unpopular areas
(especially Rayong Province), we happened to make some new provincial records
published in (Kosterin, 2005) and also presented in section 5 of this paper.
The novelty of those records followed from the distribution maps in the atlas
by Hämäläinen & Pinratana (1999) and was approved personally
by Matti Hämäläinen.
2. January 2006.
In January 2006 we returned to
Thailand and visited the same places, so there is just a brief report of
odonates encountered. But one circumstance should be pointed out: in January
2006 we found insects much more abundant and diverse than an year ago. This can
be explained by the previous winter being exceptionally dry, and to a lesser
extent that this time we were in first half of January, while the first time in
the second half. Anyway, the unusual poverty of the previous winter was rather
good a circumstance for us since it made our first acquaintance with a tropical
biodiversity less shocking. This time it was good to see its richer winter
variant. I will stress the differences below.
Amusing was the fact that we met the
New Year on a plain Moscow-Bangkok, full of cheerful and drunken compatriots.
We arrived to Bangkok at midday, tired enough, and took a taxi to Pattaya.
Since we failed to book any hotel, we had to look for empty rooms and found
them only in the southernmost end of Pattaya, at the very end of the Jomtien
beach, in Jomtien Holiday Hotel, quite in evening. It was a large and tall
hotel specialized solely on Chinese tourists, which spend there no more than
one night and were carried in plenties to and fro by huge couches, dozens of
which stood every night at the entrance. We were quite strangely-looking guys
in that hotel. Much more strange we looked for hotel’s employees when,
immediately after accommodation, we rushed through the backyard and a pretty
dump to the nearest wasting land in a hope to see some insects in twilight of
the first day of this year. And we were granted in this our intention. There
was an extremely dirty pool behind the backyard, badly smelling and with some
soap layer on the surface, obviously intaking some sinks from the hotel. But
there were a lot of dragonflies. First of all there were numerous Tholymis tillarga swarming above the
pool. In particular, we observed a female ovipositing, with a male patrolling
above it. Last year we only occasionally saw some solitary individuals of this
species. On a damp grass of a bogged wasteland around the pool we met many Diplacodes trivialis (very few last
year) and some Crocothemis servilia
and Ischnura senegalensis. In the
last twilight, a scarcely seen male Anax
appeared flying above the pool surface. That was all for the first day, but
that was enough.
Next day we proceeded exploring
surroundings of the Jomtien beach. The pool and its surroundings presented us
the same C. servilia, D. trivialis, I.
senegalensis active at the pool and near and some individuals of both sexes
of T. tillarga resting on bushes and
high grass. In addition, there were many Orthetrum
sabina everywhere, some common Palnata
flavescens were flying above the wasteland, and I collected a female of Rhyothemis variegata. Nikita found a
male of Trithemis pallidinervis and
of Ceriagrion auranticum. In later
days we observed there the same species set, with few additions. Next morning,
January 3, I found here also a female Aciagrion
borneense, and a young female of Brachydiplax
chalybea, and on January 4 – Aciagrion
pallidum. A large flat chain of pools behind the Jomtien beach this year
appeared to have drought out (that was strange since the generally the
vegetation looked fresher) and devoid of odonates. Behind it, at an edge of a
grove, on July 10, I found a group of Rhyothemis
phyllis patrolling.
From a window of my room I noticed a
lovely large pond with some reed and a lot of lotus and nymphaeas, not far from
the sea. There were many familiar C. servilia,
Brachythemis contaminata, I. senegalensis. Besides, Acisoma p. panorpoides of both sexes and males of Diplacodes nebulosa, a species not seen
by us last year, were numerous. The former keep to the grass on banks, the
second mostly perched on stems emerging from water. There was one male of Neurothemis tullia and several males of Brachydiplax chalyaea also perching
above the water, and some Tramea
transmarina euryale ranged above it apart from the bank.
In the afternoon we visited the
swamp with ferns and reed and surrounded with trees between the P. O. Box Hotel
and Metro Jomtien Concotel, which attracted us so much last year. This swamp
was also almost drought out and hardly had any water, yet the vegetation was
rich and odonates numerous. As previous year, there were many (of course the
abundance evaluated so with respect to their dimensions) Agriocnemis femina and O.
sabina. In a shade of trees and on the edges of this grow there were many Aciagrion pallidum (in grass) and Lathrecista asiatica (perching on
protruding twigs in 1-3 m above the ground): of both species, last year we just
saw one individual for many visits there. We found no Rhodothemis rufa and Onycharguia
atrocyana but instead encountered a male of Neurothemis intermedia atalanta. And instead of numerous Ceriagrion auranticum there were equally
numerous Ceriagrion olivaceum.
Looking ahead I have to say that several further visits to this swamp during
our trip did not provide more species. I revisited the swamp on January 10 and
found no damselflies, while of Anisoptera found, in addition, a female of D. trivialis, a young female of B. chalybea, a female of T. tillarga, and this time two N. i. atalanta.
Next day, January 3, we spent at
Sai-Kaew Beach. We get there by a cater, while there were many cars came ‘from
the continent’. Anyway, it was a lovely place, with banks clad with thick and
spiny thickets of low trees, shrubs and spiny bamboo. Several Tramea transmarina euryale were
permanently flying, obviously aggregated to each other, at crowns of sparse
trees growing just on the beach on the very bank. Along the road going through
jungles, and in gaps in thickets, there occurred Lathrecista asiatica and Potamarcha
congener, and, once, a male of Neurothemis
fulvia. I found a path which lead me to another deserted road along the
coast which in turn lead to an extremely beautiful deserted bay with some half
ruined constructions and a fence of barbed wire, with many gaps in it. Later I
learnt that this bay is a military base and the access there is prohibited. In
one place of that road, nearly facing the rocky sea coast, I found Aciagrion pallidum, and in another place
not far from there a female of Orthetrum
glaucum, which perched on stems and, as startled, flew only for very short
distances. At the beach there were two ponds with grassy banks and surrounded
by trees, one with flat banks and another in a deep hollow. Last year they
showed a rich fauna of odonates, and this year even richer. Going down the
shady slope of the bank of the hollow pond, I saw a brownish-grey moderately
striped Gynacantha sp. (most probably
G. subinterrupta) which sat on a stem
in front of me but then was scared and disappeared. Above the pond surface a
male of Anax guttatus ranged low
above the water (and I spotted it), several
Pantala flavescens flying higher. At reed patches at a high bank there kept
three males of Neurothemis fulvia,
obviously keeping more or less together, and many O. sabina and C. servilia.
At tall grass stems and dry bush branches near the water perched several B. chalybea. At a flatter bank a male Orthetrum chrysis perched on stems
emerging from shallow water. It was very cautious and ranged far above the
surface but returned mostly to the same perch. Besides, I saw Orthetrum pruinosum. In low grass on a
flat bank there kept several males and females of Neurothemis tullia (last year we met only two males for two week),
and extremely numerous Ceriagrion
olivaceum, some Agriocnemis femina and
Agriocmenis pygmaea in a mixture, and
one Aciagrion pallidum. I hoped to
collect more such specimens of Ceriagrion
?indochinense as the one I
collected last year: very large and with orange abdomen. But nothing like this
was met this time. Several Ischnura
senegalensis perched on grasses emerging from the water surface. The
odonate set at the flat pond was poorer, but at a thicket edge near it Rhyothemis phyllis was soaring. There
were no Trithemis festiva and T. aurora which abounded these ponds
last year.
We revisited this place on January
11. The situation at the pond was the same but there were not a single
individual of any Ceriagrion. This
time we did not see Gynacantha. But
at the same very place of the deserted road where on January 3 I collected A. pallidum, I again encountered A. pallidum, and at the same place where
I collected a female O. glaucum, I
found a male O. glaucum. There were
no fresh water nearby and those facts remained unexplained.
On January 4 we departed to the
Khao-Khitchakut National Park, Chanthaburi Province, where arrived at midday.
There was a small open restaurant in front of the entrance, with a small lotic
ditch behind it near the bush fence. At the ditch, there were two males of Neurothemis fulvia and several males of N. fluctuans perching on high stems and
chasing each other (that of N. fulvia
preferred to fly low above water along the same trajectory each time), while at
the bush fence there were many young N.
intermeida atalanta: three species of the same genus altogether. The second
half of the day we explored a large pond at the headquarters and the lowest
part of the Krating valley. At the grassy banks of the pond there were the same
Pseudagrion wiliamsoni, P. australasiae,
Prodasineura autumnalis, which we saw last year, but this time the
following species added: Pseudagrion
rubriceps, Agriocnemis pygmaea (many; perhaps there were also A. femina, as these species as a rule
occur together, but this time this was not documented by neither specimen nor a
photograph), A. nana, Aciagrion borneense
(few), A. pallidum, Diplacodes trivialis
(many), D. nebulosa (both sexes), Neurothemis tullia (both sexes), N. fluctuans (males). There was some
unidentified teneral Ceriagrion sp.
We met only one individual of Copera
ciliata, so numerous last year, and not a single Brachythemis contaminata. In addition, Nikita photographed a young
individual of Copera marginipes and a
male of Brachydiplax farinosa (again,
discriminated from B. sobrina,
according to Asahina, by 8 antenodals seen on the photo). There was an
artificial bay with sandy banks at the point of the Krating River influx, and
there were other dragonflies species, some of which not seen by us anywhere
last year. At its small secondary bay, with some reed, there perched males (one
of each species) of Orthetrum pruinosum
neglectum, O. chrysis, and N. fluctuans, but in the evening at
that place there was only a male of Neurothemis
fulvia. On a small congregation of floating twigs and branches at the bank
Nikita found several Libellago lineata,
and a male of Trithemis aurora, while
at the very mouth of Krating there kept about a dozen of Neurobasis chinensis and a male of Heliocypha biforata. There was also a concrete ditch with a running
water at the side of asphalted road going to the Krating River. At this ditch,
a male of presumably Orthetrum glaucum
was perching and patrolling along it.
In the lowest parts of the valleys
of the Krating River arms, in shade of primary tropical forest, two odonate
species were found. In one place there was a congregation of 7-10 individuals
of Vestalis gracilis, perching on
bush twigs, sparse grass and boulders. At the same place there kept secretly
several females of Neurothemis fluctuans.
Surprisingly, a spot of many V. gracilis
was found also in shade of trees at the pond bank opposite to the mountain
slopes.
In twilight I anticipated to see
some crepuscular activity above the pond, but saw only some individuals of Tholymis tillarga at the pond near the
bridge.
January 5 and 6 were devoted to
exploring the Krating stream at and above the waterfalls. At the waterfalls no
dragonflies were seen. Above them there is a very steep section of slope where
tall trees are absent and only thickets of not so high a bamboo are present,
leaving some gaps so that the place is rather sunny. There kept many N. intermedia atalanta and also several
females of N. tullia and one female
of Trithemis aurora were met with.
Above, the slope become very gentle and the path for some distance went through
a regular rainforest of tall trees, with scarce herb layer and moderately expressed
bush later. Here I thrice (on a way to in both days and on the way back on the
first day) startled Gynacantha bayadera,
which flew some distance and soon sat on branches. We spent a considerable time
in two openings along the Krating River valley which I visited last yrar, where
the river flows through a wide granite bed. As a year ago, there were many Vestalis gracilis and Aristocypha fenestrella, but no Zygonix iris and Hydrobasileus croceus. In addition, there were quite many Neurobasis chinensis and Heliocypha biforata. Two females of the
latter for a long time oviposited into a large piece of wood floating in a calm
place behind the boulder. Near each, a male sat on that log, the males often
flew and fight with each other in the air. Good photos by Nikita can be seen at
http://www.asia-odonata.net. There were some tiny pools with dirty
water in hollows of granite rocks at the bank. At one of those, a very cautious
male of Orthetrum chrysis periodically
appeared and perched, several females of N.
tullia were also noticed nearby, and on January 6 I collected a male Ceriagrion olivaceum. In shady parts of
the bank, elusive and very cautious Coeliccia
yamasakii of both sexes could be noticed perching on branches and leaves
near the ground.
On
January 6 I made a three hour long trip from that place in the Krating valley
along a path which raised along some ridge. The first day was overcast and even
with a bit of dribbling rain. First I passed some glade with a very numerous
congregation of Vestalis gracilis of
both sexes, and entered a regular and quite even rainforest. The path went for
several kilometres rising gradually. There were few insects, but once I met
first a female, and perhaps a kilometre further a male of a modest damsel which
appeared to be Coeliccia kazukoe.
They were steady perchers, quite cautious to be startled by a finger pressing
the camera button (so that a flying insect was photographed), but immediately
returned to the same leaf. It was quite strange to find them in the depth of
rainforest quite far and above from water, while in the valley there were only C. yamasakii. The path raised to a
gentle crest, and huge smooth rocks appeared and were becoming more and more
frequent, then I reached a local top clad with the same regular rainforest and
started to descend. I had to turn back. At that time, the sun appeared
permanently. On my way back, below the level of rock, individuals of Gynacantha started to occur. They were
absent when I went along the path an hour or two ago and were obviously
activated by the sun. They were startled from bushes, flew several metres with
a wavy flight, being hardly traceable against a motley background, and sat
again onto lower bush branches. There were one male of G. bayadera (photographed) and two individuals of G. subinterrupta (the male was
photographed).
January 7-9 we spent in Cambodia and
returned to Pattaya on 9th at night, accommodated at the middle of
Jomtien beach. Next three days we regularly visit quite a large but rather
hidden pond with nymphaeas, situated apart from the sea and bordered with some
trees. There were many regular O. sabina,
C. servilia, D. trivialis and some D.
chalybea at this pond. It was regularly patrolled by A. guttatum and Tramea t.
euryale., and an ovipositing female of A.
guttatum was recorded. There were plenty of emerging grass at banks, and it
was full of A. femina, A. pygmaea and
Ceriagrion auranticum, many in
tandems. Besides, on January 10, I picked up a motobiker and visited the valley
of some rivulet crossing the highway just south of Pattaya. Approaching the
valley, I took it as very promising. I entered a flat and even sedge floodplain
bog, partly with a shallow water. Such a habitat in Siberia would be full of odonates
(Lestes and Sympetrum) but appeared lifeless here, not counting a female of N. tullia. Closer to the river, slow and
dirty, there were some swamps with Typha
and sedge, but again with only scarce commonest species such as I. senegalensis, O. sabina, N. tullia, D.
trivialis. However, at the solid bank of the rivulet, on leaves of the same
bush under a tree shade, there perched males (one of each species) of Pseudagrion rubriceps and P. australasiae. As usually, quite a
lot of Pantala flew among trees, and
I collected P. congener. Downstream
of the highway, the water overflowed over the floodplain grown up with tall and
fresh grass and numerous trees. A. femina
and A. pygmaea abounded in grass, on
its top perched many N. tullia and
few A. p. panorpoides while Rhyothemis phyllis flew high between the
trees.
On
January 13 I had to revisit Khao-Khitchakut to take the forgotten films, and on
this occasion I decided to visit the top of the Yot Khao Phrabart mountain. The
car carried me to the huge and lifeless water reserve at its foot. There was a
wide brick-red (laterite) road cut through the rainforest which lead to the
top, and numerous small open trucks was going to and for carrying immense
people (mostly school children) up and down. It was a very intensive
pilgrimship to the mountain top which was believed to bear Buddha's footprints
and where some other sacral places were situated. There were crowds of people
there, many devoted people of both sexes in white cloths lived in tents just at
the sides of the paths, a huge portrait of the King was being mounted at a huge
rock by two monks wearing yellow cloths. I was the only European there.
Everybody were very much surprised seeing me, they all smiled, some men shook
my hand, and most of schoolgirls pronounced slowly “My name is…” behind my
back, recollecting their English lessons (but none spoke the very name). There
were enormous smooth rocks at the top and a much lower and small-leafed forest.
And no odonates. Along the road through the rainforest, only two species
occurred in sunny places of the road: some Aciagrion
pallidum, and Neurothemis intermedia
atalanta, the latter sometimes aggregated in very large quantities – this
appears to be a species most readily dispersing to mountain tropical forests.
On
January 12 and 14 we visited the Chan-ta-Then valley (13.23796o N,
101.04251o E), at Khao-Khieo, descending from quite a sudden
moderate mountain range crossed by a highway to Pattaya. The range is clad by a
forest which last season was completely dry: dry were even the bamboo and palm
leaves in the understorey. This time the forest looked quite green, and only
the tallest trees stood without leaves. A peculiarity of the valley was
abundance of wild bananas. There were a great diversity of insects, and I must
say that the rich species set of butterflies almost completely differed from
that observed in Khao-Khitchakut (and I was quite happy with this
circumstance). Odonates were also abundant. Along the river, there were many
males of Orthetrum glaucum perching
on boulders. They were of two types, with a pruinosed and dark thorax, and at
first glance looked as different species, but an examination of the hamuli
proved their identity and being most probably age morphs. Among them, in less
quantities, occurred O. chrysis. I
observed oviposition of a female O.
chrysis at sandy banks of a ‘window’ of running water between stones (no
male was seen), and then in the same ‘window’ an ovipositing female of unknown
libellulid species: of the same size but with a contrasted stripy yellow-black
abdomen (from this coloration I could speculate it was Onychothemis testacea,
not reported for Chon Buri Province, but this is only a guess). In a more or
less flat lower section of the valley, with pools of slowly current waters among
boulders, there were several Neurothemis
fulvia, N. fluctuans, Trithemis festiva (many), T. aurora (one male), P. congener (one male) and in grass of a
more flat widened section there were many N.
tullia and few Copera vittata,
Ceriagrion olivaceum, Aciagrion borneense (2 females found of the latter).
I several times observed a very spectacular behaviour of N. fulvia: a female laid eggs into the water while a male nearby
slowly fluttered in a vertical position almost touching the water surface with
the tip of his abdomen; once such a male suddenly grasped the female and they
flew to bushes in a tandem. In shady places in a more steep part of the valley,
there were very numerous individuals of both sexes of C. yamasakii: sometimes 2-3 individuals sat on the same leaf. Here
we rarely met resting T. tillarga.
Besides, there were A. fenestrella
and V. gracilis. As usually, any
small sunny gap in the mountain forest was occupied by several individuals of N. intermedia atalanta. On the second
day, I was lucky enough to see and photograph a female of Hydrobasileus croceus which sat on a bush in front of me at the
path going along the gorge. Of interesting phenomena, we were struck with
enormous permanently moving congregations of Opiliones at shady rocks.
On a bank of a large pond near the headquarters
of this small National park, we recorded A.
femina, A. pygmaea, I. senegalensis, P. rubriceps, C. marginipes, Brachydiplax
farinosa or sobrina, B. chalybea, N.
fulvia, N. tullia, C. servilia.
On
January 15, we revisited the ‘coral island’ of Ko Lan. The abandoned concrete
swimming pool with bad shallow water was at its place, but mostly lacked
odonates. There were some O. sabina, B.
contaminata, D. trivialis and P.
congener but no damselflies,
Trithemis, Rhyothemis and Macrodiplax
cora, present in abundance last year. In shrubbery facing the coast I found
several Aciagrion borneense of both
sexes, without any connection with water. Near the coast on an opposite side of
the island I found a pool with water surface polluted with oil, but several Tramea transmarine euryale patrolled it
in the air, and several R. phyllis
flew at some grove edge. On the hill, there occurred very few Pantala and more frequent Tramea (opposite to the previous year).
Thus,
during this visit we observed 49 odonate species. Of them, last year in the
same places (except for the Khao-Chamao National Park) and for the same period
of time we did not see the following 16 species: Neurobasis chinensis, Libellago lineata, Heliocypha biforata, Agriocnemis
nana, Aciagrion borneense (this time widespread and frequent), Pseudagrion rubriceps, Ceriagrion
olivaceum, Coeliccia yamasakii, C. kazukoae, Gynacantha bayadera, G.
subinterrupta, Anax guttatus (there were no Aeshnids at all last time), Orthetrum glaucum, O. chrysis, O.
pruinosum, Diplacodes nebulosa. Of those, A. borneense and A. guttatus
were not previously recorded in Chon Buri Province (Hämäläinen
& Pinratana, 1999). Such species as A.
pallidum, D. trivialis, L. asiatica, N. tullia, N. intermedia, N. fulvia
were very scarce last January but abundant this time. At the same time, this
year we did not see 8 species met last year: Ceriagrion indochinense,
Onychargia atrocyana, Protosticta khaosoidaoensis, Epophthalmia sp.,
Rhodothemis rufa, Pseudothemis jorina, Zygonyx iris, Macrodiplax cora. This
may indicate fluctuation of species’ abundance, perhaps with respect to
climatic conditions of a given winter.
To see the photos of odonates taken
at this trips, see the two sources:
photos by Oleg Kosterin at his site: http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/odonata/thailand.htm;
and the photos by both authors in ‘The Asian Dragonfly Home Page’ by Eric Gibert: http://www.asia-odonata.net
(searching for the authors Oleg Kosterin and Nikita Vikhrev).
Again, it was Matti
Hämäläinen who consulted me patiently after this second trip. I
am also grateful for Rory Dow, England, for valuable consulting and help with
literature.
3. Data for provincial
records.
Records marked with asterisk were
not mentioned in (Kosterin, 2006)
Species, for the first time recorded for Chon Buri Province
Aciagrion borneense Ris, 1911.
1 female collected – Pattaya, Jomtien beach, a
wasting land at Jomtien Holiday Hotel, 3.01.2006;
2 females collected – Pattaya environs, Ko-Lan
Island, dry grass among bushes on a slope facing the southern coast,
15.01.2006;
1 female collected and released – Chan-ta-Then
River valley below the road from the national park headquarters, 14.01.2006.
Aciagrion pallidum Selys, 1891
1 male photographed - Pattaya, a swamp with
tall grass surrounded with a tiny forest, near the Jomtien Beach, between B. O.
Guesthouse and Metro Jomtien Condotel, 26.01.2005;
1 male, 1 female
collected – the same place, 2.01.2006;
2 males, 1 female collected – the Sai-Kaew beach near Pattaya, sides of a road
going through shrubbery at the coast, 3.01.2006;
2 males, 1 female collected – the same place, 11.01.2006.
Onychargia atrocyana Selys, 1865
2 females collected - the same place, 2.02.2005.
Pseudothemis jorina Forster, 1904.
1 male collected - the same place, 28.01.2005;
1 male photographed – the Sai-Kaew beach near
Pattaya, a deep pool in a spiny bamboo forest near the beach: 2.02.2005.
Anax guttatus (Burmeister,
1839)
1 male collected – the same place, 3.01.2006;
1 dead female collected - Jomtien beach, 14.11.06.
Epophthalmia sp.
2 exuviae closely on a large tree trunk about
1.5 m above the ground and about 10 m from the water - Pattaya, a chain of very
shallow pools with muddy banks, along a road boing parallel to the Jomtien
Beach, behind the Nature Park Resort, 1.02.2005.
Species, for the first time recorded for Rayong Province
Aristocypha fenestrella (Rambur, 1842)
1 male visually - Khao-Chamao – Khao-Wong
National Park, the closest rivulet with a rocky bed and waterfalls, surrounded
with an evergreen forest Khao-Chamao waterfalls, 31.01.2005.
Prodasineura autumnalis (Fraser, 1927)
1 male visually - Khao-Chamao – Khao-Wong
National Park, a pond at the headquaters, 30.01.2005;
1 male, 1 female
photographed – An almost stagnant Khao-Chamao River and muddy pools nearby S of Khao-Chamao village, 31.01.2005.
Brachythemis contaminata (Fabricius, 1793)
Several visually – the same place, 31.01.2005
Brachydiplax farinosa Kruger, 1902 (identified by the body pattern and the number of
antenodals)
1 male photographed - the same place,
31.01.2005.
Trithemis aurora (Burmeister, 1839)
3 young males collected, 1 mature male
photographed + many visually – the same place, 31.01.2005;
1 male photographed - The Khao-Chamao
Waterfalls (see at A. fenestrella),
31.01.2005;
1 male visually + 1 male photographed - the
pond in the Khao-Chamao - Khao-Wong Natl. Park, as above at P. autumnalis, 30.01.2005.
Neurothemis intermedia atalanta Ris, 1919
1 female captured and released - the pond as
above, 10.01.2005.
Species, for the first time recorded for Chanthaburi Province
Hydrobasileus croceus (Brauer, 1867)
1 young male captured and released – the
Khao-Khitchakut National Park, the Krating rivulet above the waterfalls, with a
stony bed and surrounded with an evergreen forest, 30.01.2005.
Acknowledgements
Once again we would like to express
our gratitude to Matti Hämäläinen for his continuous
consultations and help with literature, to Rory Dow for the same concerning the
second trip, and to Bro. Amnuay Pinratana and Bastiaan Kiauta for a proposal to
publish this paper in ‘Malangpo’.
References
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and some contiguous territories, species of the USSR fauna). Nauka, Siberian
Division, Novosibirsk (in Russian).
Hämäläinen, M. &
A. Pinratana. 1999. Atlas of the dragonflies of Thailand – distributioun maps
by provinces. Brothers of Saint Gabriel in Thailand, Bangkok.
Pisuth Ek-Amnuay. 1996. Dragonflies
and damselflies from Thailand. (in Thai).
Silsby, J. 2001. Dragonflies of the
world. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C.
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