Updates on the Odonata .....

Several days ago, I received an email from an expert of dragonfly, Rory Dow who response to my question that being asked to Linda Averill of World Dragonfly Association (WDA).The email is about the identification of the dragonfly that I discussed before (please refer to the previous topic on Odonata)

Below is the message by Rory;

" Dear Hashimi Ismail,

Linda Averill of the WDA forwarded me your email and photograph for identification. Your photos show a female of a species of Tetracanthagyna (Riverhawker). It is almost certainly Tetracanthagyna plagiata, one of the largest dragonflies in the world. It is a member of the family Aeshnidae and breeds in forest streams. Many members of the Aeshnidae found in tropical Asia fly at dusk and even into the night and it is not uncommon to find them in buildings, but Tetracanthagyna are found in this way less often than some genera.

Do you have any other photographs of the dragonfly, in particular do you have a side view?

Best wishes,

Rory "


Thanks to Rory and Linda for the info. After referring to several websites by using the keywords Tetracanthagyna plagiata, I found that the dragonfly that I observed before has taxonomy as below:

Order:ODONATA
Sub-Order: ANISOPTERA
Super-Family: AESHNOIDEA
Family: AESHNIDAE
Genus :Tetracanthagyna
Species : Tetracanthagyna plagiata (Waterhouse, 1877)

Found in Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Borneo, China, Indonesia, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand

For all readers information, the fact is that my school is located between two rivers, the Sungai Dungun (sungai = river; Dungun = a species of mangrove plant, Heritiera littoralis)that flows in front of the school, and the Sungai Jengai that flows behind the sungai. Another fact is the village where my school is located in quite far from the sea (almost 65 km) and rich with tropical rain-forest (unlucky there are a lot of logging activities here). May be that is why the Tetracanthagyna dragonflies could be found here.