Yesterday, I spotted for the first time the Agriocnemis femina oryzae mate at the usual water pond. By the time I get my camera in focus and they were finished with their exercise.

Today I came early and set my camera setting all ready and wait.....my Luck came,   for the first time I have images of  Agriocnemis femina oryzae.  Not only 1 pair but 2 pairs.

Photos of damselflies and dragonflies are valuable documentation to confirm the identity of a male and female. As very often a female of a species looks identical to male of another species, and an armature like me hardly can correctly identify....Not until a photo is available as proof.

They commonly fly in tandem during mating when disturbed but they never goes too far from the drain.

The three female Agriocnemis femina oryzae are different in appearance. If I did not see them with a male but individually separately, I would easily confused by their color as 3 different species.

1 Nov 2006, 09:29 AM

1 Nov 2006, 12:05 PM

12 Nov 2006, 2:30 PM

This 1st pair I saw are mature male and immature female.

It lasted about a minute and suddenly break apart and female could not be seen near by.

The second pair are mature male and mature female.

It lasted about a minute. Then both gently disconnect each other but remain at the same spot for another minute.

They flew apart but within one foot from each other.

Then the female began to exercise her abdomen and......see photo details below.

 

This 3rd pair are mature male and VERY mature female. This female is VERY matured by identifying from her thick white powder on thorex

The following are closer look at the 3 female Agriocnemis femina oryzae that have different color and appearance :

Red color indicate this damselfly is still immature.

1) Thin White powder is developing over her lower thorax.

1) Thick White powder already developed over her thorax.

2) Her ovipositor (last 3 segments not seen in this photo) stained with mud indicating she has lied eggs earlier.