225: Nannophya pygmaea Rambur, 1842

     Number: 225 / Family: Libellulidae / Genus: Nannophya

Species: Nannophya pygmaea  / Scarlet Pygmy

Province(s) sighted: Narathiwat

Habitat: Open Peat Swamp

In flight: August / Sightings (by me): Locally common

Species easily confused with: N/A

An absolute lifer for me... one I thought I had seen in Chaiyaphum (but it's a different species) followed by seeing it again in Chantaburi, again probably the same as above. Though that is good news in itself, I still hadn't seen my dream species and one that is one of the smallest in the world! I am, of course, talking about Nannophya pygmaea, commonly known as the Scarlet Pygmy amongst several other common names. And, after seeing it at the Peat Swamp in Narathiwat, I was happy but the shots were poor as it was very low down and you couldn't get to them because of the boardwalk. Finally, we gave up on the idea but we managed to spot them again a few days later... this time we were still at peak swamp but at ground level! And there were several males spotted and a solitary teneral female. We also found a few more males at the entrance to the peat swamp too on the last day there. 

The Male

Hands down possibly my favourite species in the world. When you see it you are so shocked at it's tiny size, but the fully matured males are an striking black and red colour, even with red and black eyes and a very prominent amber wing base. This species really was the holy grail for me! You can see why.

The 'Young' Male

The young male is similar to the adult male but yellowish in colour. It will become bright red eventually.

The 'Teneral' Female

I was fortunate enough to spot a female (well Noppadon saw it first), but it was only a teneral specimen (newly emerged). It was overhanging a pond and was at an awkward angle. This was the best I could get. And there were no other females spotted. Early or late in the season maybe?

184: Nannophya sp.

Number: 184 / Family: Libellulidae / Genus: Nannophya   

Species: Nannophya sp. / -   

Habitat: Forested and Well Vegetated Ponds   

Province(s) sighted: Chaiyaphum, Chantaburi  

Sightings (by me): Extremely rare 

In flight (that I have seen): July - August    

Species easily confused with: N/A

Straight after seeing Ceriagrion pallidum for the first time, around the corner of the same little forested pond, I saw a microscopic, but bright red dragonfly hanging on to reeds for dear life in very blustery conditions. To be honest, I had to look at it for a few seconds before my mind would compute. It was Nannophya sp. - a lifer species for me. I had always wanted to see Thailand's smallest species, but feared I would have to travel south in order to do so. However, there it was, much smaller than I could ever dream. I shocked myself into action and managed to get a few shots away before the wind was too much and it shot off never to be seen again. I spent a few hours searching the rest of the pond, but eventually the sun disappeared and with it any chances of finding more. I will return to get improvement shots and I hope that it isn't as rare as I think it is. Maybe I won't see it again. Who knows? I believe it has been recorded once at Phu Kradueng, Loei, but other than that it is mostly seen in the far south, though it is rare there too. Sadly, I am yet to find another specimen at Phu Khieo WS but I will keep looking. 

However, through an organised ode trip with several members of the Facebook Group, Dragonflies of Thailand, we managed to locate several males and females in Chantaburi (though it was incredibly hard photographing them on such a windy day). I am not sure if they are the same species or different.

To add to the Nannophy melting pot, a new species of dragonfly has recently been described as Nannophya miyahatai from southern Laos by Yokoi, Souphanthong & Teramoto in 2020. It very much looks like that species, though I cannot be sure without specimens to check. Anyway, here is what I have photographed so far:

The 'Chantaburi' Male

This does fit the description of N. miyahatai very well indeed, though too difficult to say from photos alone. Key differences in this and the standard N. pygmaea, is that its abdomen is slimmer and quite a bit longer and the yellowish wing bases are much reduced in this specimen.

The 'Chantaburi' Female

The female is very similar to that of N. pygmaea, but like the male, the colour on the wing bases is heavily reduced.

The 'Chaiyaphum' Male

I cannot see too many differences in the two males, except this has a little most red on the thorax, though that could simply be down to age. Sadly I only got a fleeting glimpse of this solitary specimen and I have never seen another since.

Any thoughts?