Dark Daggerhead (Macromidia donaldi Fraser, 1924). നിഴൽ കോമരം

Common name: Dark Daggerhead
Scientific name: Macromidia donaldi (Fraser, 1924)
Family: Synthemistidae
Malayalam name: നിഴൽ കോമരം
Place of observation: Kallettumkara, Kerala
Date of observation: June, July 2020

Male

Abdomen 34 mm. Hind-wing 30 mm. 

Female

Abdomen 31 mm. Hind-wing 28-30 mm.

Teneral Female

Teneral Female

Male 

Male

Male

Anal appendages

Lateral Thorax

Eyes & Dorsal Thorax

Ventral view of last segments and anal appendages

Secondary Genitalia

Exuviae of Macromidia donaldi

Wings of male

Yellow Torrent Hawk (Macromia calliope ssp. flavocolorata)

Common name: Yellow Torrent Hawk

Scientific name: Macromia calliope ssp. flavocolorata

Family: Macromiidae

Malayalam name: NA

Place of observation: Thumboormuzhy, Kerala 

Date of observation: 

Anamalai reedtail (Protosticta davenporti) ആനമല നിഴൽത്തുമ്പി Fraser, 1931

Common name: Anamalai Reedtail

Malayalam name: ആനമല നിഴൽത്തുമ്പി
Scientific name: Protosticta davenporti Fraser, 1931   

Family: Platystictidae
Place of observation: Thumboormuzhy, Kerala 

Date of observation: Various

Female

Male

Male

Newly Emerged & Tenerals of Damselflies

Black Tipped Forest Glory (Vestalis apicalis) female.

Copera sp. female

Black Tipped Forest Glory (Vestalis apicalis) female.

 River Heliodor (Libellago lineata) male

 River Heliodor (Libellago lineata)male

Blue bush dart (Copera vittata) male.

Brown Spreadwing (Lestes umbrinus Selys,1891) തവിടന്‍ ചേരാച്ചിറകൻ

Common name : Brown Spreadwing   
Malayalam name : തവിടന്‍ ചേരാച്ചിറകൻ  
Scientific name : Lestes umbrinus Selys,1891  
Family : Lestidae (Spreadwings) ചേരാചിറകന്മാർ  
Place of observation : Thumboor and Thumboormuzhy, Thrissur - Kerala  
Date of observation : 13-01-2020, 19-01-2020

Male :      Abdomen 32 mm  Hind-wing 20 mm
Female :  Abdomen 29-30 mm  Hind-wing 21 mm. 

Male

Male

Male

Male

Male

Head

Dorsal Thorax

Head and Synthorax

Head & Dorsal Thorax

Anal appendages

Anal appendages

Indian midget or Brown dartlet (Mortonagrion varralli) കരിയിലത്തുമ്പി Fraser, 1920

Common name : Indian midget or Brown dartlet

Malayalam name : കരിയിലത്തുമ്പി

Scientific name : Mortonagrion varralli  Fraser, 1920
Family : Coenagrionidae
Place of observation : Nandam (Vaikom) Kottayam - Kerala 

Date of observation  : 05-01-2020

Male -  Abdomen 23-25 mm. Hind-wing 14-15 mm.

Female- Abdomen 24 mm. Hind-wing 14 mm

Female

Elattoneura souteri (ചെങ്കറുപ്പൻ മുളവാലൻ) Fraser 1924

Scientific name: Elattoneura souteri Fraser, 1924
Malayalam name: ചെങ്കറുപ്പൻ മുളവാലൻ
Family: Protoneuridae (Threadtails / Bambootails) മുളവാലൻ തുമ്പികൾ
Place of observation: Kuttikkad - Pariyaram, Thrissur Kerala 
Date of observation : 25-12-2016 - 31-12-2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elattoneura_souteri

Male identification keys

Male -  Abdomen 30 mm. Hind-wing 18 mm.

   Head black, marked with bright cherry-red; labium brown; labrum and anteclypeus dark brown; postclypeus and cheeks pale red, this colour forming a broadband across the face from eye to eye and most intensely red on the clypeus; rest -of head velvety black, transversed by a broad band of bright cherry-red, with its hinder border at the level of posterior ocelli. Eyes reddish-brown above, changing gradually to greenish-yellow beneath. Prothorax velvety black, with a fine point of cherry-red at the middle of the posterior lobe, and a subdorsal stripe of the same colour in continuation of the humeral stripes. Thorax velvety black, marked with a broad cherry red humeral stripe on each side of the dorsum, these stripes being of the same breadth as the intervening black; laterally a stripe of citron-yellow, limited in front by the first lateral suture, and with its anterior border bright cherry-red; finally, the hinder half of the metepimeron primrose-yellow. Legs black, femora pale on inner side, tibiae yellow on extensor surface. Abdomen black, segment marked with bright cherry-red at its base, and with an angulated yellow marking Legs black, femora pale on inner side, tibiae yellow on extensor surface. Abdomen black, segment 1 marked with bright cherry-red at its base, and with an angulated yellow marking on the sides; segment 2 broadly cherry-red on the dorsum, this marked subapically with two moderately large spots of black and a narrow black apical ring, laterally and apically the red changing to yellow, the sides entirely black below; segment 3 with its basal sixth cherry-red, changing to yellow on the sides, the red part marked with a narrow sub-basal black annule broadly incomplete on the dorsum; also a diffuse subapical yellowish spot on the sides which is repeated on segments 4 and 5, but more obscurely so; rest of abdomen black, unmarked. Wings hyaline, palely enfumed towards the apices in adults; pterostigma black, with a fine frame of yellow lining the inner side of the enclosing black nervures, covering one cell; 17 postnodal nervures in fore-wings, 15 in the hind; Cuii 3 cells long in the fore-wings, 5 in the hind. Anal appendages: the superiors black, marked above with a large dash of cherry-red, directed straight back, constricted at base; ending in a point; seen in profile they dilate rapidly towards the apex, and are furnished below with two robust spines, one medial, one sub-basal; inferiors black, slightly longer than superiors, directed straight back, tapering to an obtuse point, apices curled inward rather abruptly and nearly meeting at the middle line.

Female identification keys

Female- Abdomen 28 mm. Hind-wing 18 mm

Head: eyes dark brown above, greenish-yellow in the lower half, the two zones of colour sharply limited from one another; labium, labrum, and anteclypeus pale brown, cheeks greenish-yellow and connected across the postclypeus by a golden yellow stripe; the red band on the vertex of head replaced by a golden yellow one. Prothorax and thoracic markings similar to the male, but bright greenish-yellow instead of red, these stripes margined finely with golden yellow. Abdomen black, marked with golden-brown and olivaceous; segment 1 with an olivaceous angulated mark on the sides; 2 with a fine golden-yellow line on the mid-dorsal carina, which is continued on to segment 3 nearly as far as its apical border; laterally segment 2 has a hasp-shaped mark of yellowish-brown, and beneath it, a streak of yellow on the ventral border; 3 to 5 have the sides broadly golden brown, the basal portion nearly cut off by an invasion of the black, white apically the golden-brown expands into a diffuse olivaceous spot; 6 to 7 have this marking very obscure; 8 to 10 have a lateral greenish-yellow stripe continuous from segment to segment; the dorsal carina on these segments is the golden-yellow, this colour expanding broadly on segment 9 and less so on 10. 
Anal appendages brownish-yellow, shortly conical. Wings hyaline, pterostigma dark brown; nodal index: 15 postnodals in fore-wing, 13 in the hind. Legs black, the yellow markings brighter and more extensive than in the male.

Female

Male

Simple keys to differentiate between Prodasineura verticalis and Elattoneura souteri

Female

Male

Female