Chestnut Marsh

Site: Chestnut Marsh
Species list: 

• Crocothemis cervilia
• Diplacodes trivialis
• Ictinogomphus decoratus
• Indothemis limbata
• Nanophyea pygmea
• Orthetrum Sabina
• Orthetrum testaceum
• Pantala flavescens
• Rhyothemis phyllis phyllis
• Ceriagrion cerinorubellum
• Pseudagrion microcephallum

Weather: Perfect! Sun - 100%; Cloud - 0%
Time: 0845 - 0945

Chestnut Marsh is a shallow and open water body. Clear water with a muddy substrate - some vegetation growing within the marsh in the form of large patches of reeds in the middle of the area, and the banks that we accessed the area by were covered with ferns and pitcher plants.

Upon bashing into the growth on the bank we found hordes of Nanophyea pygmea (Scarlet Dwarf). These little guys are really amazingly good-looking! I never tire of observing them. Its probably something about the size - they seem too miniature to be quite real. Yet real they are, there were little red specks every few centimeters and also some tiny yellows (the females). I've gone for too long without seeing these little guys and it was good to see them again in such abundance. Rarely do we find them congregating in such numbers though! It felt quite as though we'd walked into Lilliputia.

Some interesting marsh species here! A pity we couldn't access the area from the other parts of the perimeter as the opposite banks had much denser growth; and the substrate of the marsh was too soft to be walked on..

Green Carpet

Location:
Green Carpet
Species seen:
Anisoptera--Dragonflies
Libellulidae

Neurothemis fluctuans

Orthetrum chrysis

Brachydiplex chalibea

Crocothemis sevilla

Rhyothemis phyllis phyllis

Tyriobapta torrida

Rhodothemis rufa

Orchithemis pulcherima

Nanophya pygmea
Corduliidae

Epophtalmia vittigera

Gomphidae

Macrogomphus quadratus

Zygoptera--Damselflies
Coenagrionidae

Ceriagrion cerinorubellum

Pseudagrion microcephellum

Protoneuridae

Prodasineura collaris

Chlorocyphidae

Libellago hyalina

Calopterygidae

Vestalis amoena/amethystine

Euphaeidae

Euphaea impar

Platystictidae

Drepanosticta quadrata

Yesterday morning, Dad brough my brother and I to "Green Carpet". Green Carpet is a primary forest, with several freshwater streams and ponds, and some muddy patches.
It was around 9 o'clock in the morning and it was a sunny day, so we had almost perfect condition for watching odonata.

We saw a red Orchithemis pulcherima near the last pond. Orchithemis pulcherima has several different forms, other than the red form. There is one form which makes it hard to be differentiated from the Orchithemis pruinans, a black-white-black plumage.

The dark purple mature Libellago hyalina might be a rare species, but it sure is abundant around the muddy patches after the third stream. We spotted about 5 perching on twigs, and my brother and I had a fun time trying to catch them with our hands, in fact, my brother succeeded in getting one to perch on his nose. (: The immature hyalina is a bright yellow with a purple tinge at the end of its abdomen. Yesterday, however, we only saw the purple ones with some yellow markings. We also observed one with a silvery-blue tinge.

Drepanosticta quadrata is a species of damselfly thought to be endemic to Singapore till recent years when it was discovered in southern Johor, the tip of Malaysia nearest to Singapore. It had black and white stripes along its abodomen and thorax, and although it is endemic to this small area, it is quite commonly found in Singapore forests.

Nanophya pygmea is one of the smallest dragonflies on Earth. It is a delicate and fast little red (for male, yellow for female) demon whose habits include occasional territory flights. It is indeed a sight to see the small creatures with their perfectly made body parts. We were rewarded yesterday by seeing two males fight for a piece of the pond near the third stream.

The best part of the day was when we saw the 2 Macrogomphus quadratus-es. The first was perching on a twig, and after we walked on for a bit, we saw a second one (or maybe it was the same one) flying about.

We also found a species we could not identify but we believe to be Idionyx yolanea. It was a brown dragonfly with yellow hind legs and some yellow stripes on the sides of its thorax. We estimated the hind wing to be from 25 to 30 mm.

We also saw a Common Tree Nymph flying around below the canopies. It is a rather large black and white butterfly, moving about in a graceful, kinda floppy flight. We also observed some huge scarab beetles around some flowering plants.

It was a good day, with a good catch!