Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Amphicnemis gracilis / bebar

At a recent survey in the Central Catchment Reserves we had a pretty good haul!

Species found:
Vetalis amethystina
Amphicnemis bebar
Libellago aurantiaca
Prodasineura notostigma
Euphaea impars
Coeliccia octogesima
Prodasineura collaris
Libellago hyalina
Drepanosticta quadrata
Orthetrum chrysis
Orchithemis pulcherrima

We had our first sighting of the Libellago hyalina in that area! It is quite commonly found at the upstream segments of the same stream system but we have never seen it along this particular trail, although it is frequented by the L. aurantiaca.

An interesting find would be the Amphicnemis bebar. Only recently described, it is completely similar to the A. gracilis on the outside. The only viable way of differentiating the two on the field is to consider the appendages as follows:


The left is the bebar, the right gracilis.

The habitat in which they reside are slightly different as well. Prof Murphy has a specimen of A. bebar collected years ago, before its description, mislabelled as A. gracilis. With this proof that Singapore had this species before, it was soon rediscovered again in the Central Catchment Reserves.

Both species have various colour forms - a green/black thorax, black abdomen form and a red thorax, black abdomen form. The red form is pretty striking! We recently saw both forms of the A. gracilis at another survey in the Petaling stream system.

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