(published in Agrion vol. 9, number 1)

Rory Dow - During our visit to Sarawak last year Graham Reels and I decided we would attempt a photographic field guide to the Odonata of Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. We intend to cover every species recorded in this region, of course we will not be able to provide a photograph of every species but we believe we can provide pretty good photographic coverage, having good photographs of many species from this years trip and my visit last year, plus whatever we get next year. We will be aiming for a genuine field guide, something along the lines of Keith Wilson's recent Hong Kong field guide, and will be trying to keep the cost down so that more people who live in Borneo will be able to afford it (that said we have no publisher at present and may end up publishing privately in Hong Kong, which may put up the price). We hope to be publishing the book by the end of 2005.

Victor Gapud – My interest in Philippine Odonata has gradually grown through the years since the 1980’s in addition to my work on Philippine water bugs, especially the leptopodids and ochterids. My discovery of Argiolestes realensis from the National Botanic Garden in Quezon, part of the Sierra Madre Range on the eastern side of Luzon , really got me excited about damselflies even more. In this same place, one could observe at least 6 species of Risiocnemis foraging in the same general area. In 2000, I discovered a second species, Argiolestes baltazarae in a lowland forest in the heart of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park . Since then, I have accumulated a fairly good collection of Philippine damselflies. In 2002, a university funding allowed my students and me to travel around Luzon to see first hand the state of the habitats of endemic damselflies, especially Risiocnemis & Drepanosticta spp. The works of Matti Hämäläinen on Risiocnemis and those of Needham and Gyger and of Lieftinck on Drepanosticta have been very useful. I met Jan van Tol and Vincent Kalkman in Manila early this year before boarding their plane for the Netherlands and we had a brief talk on the status of Philippine Odonata research. I am glad to know that Jan is almost ready to publish a revision of Philippine platystictids and eager to receive his paper. The paper of Dirk Gassmann and Matti Hämäläinen on Risiocnemis (Igneocnemis) would facilitate my fieldwork on this group. I have now accumulated photo images of many damselflies. In Jan’s paper on Protosticta of Sulawesi , he raised doubts about the existence of the genus in the Philippines . I am happy to say that I collected a male from the Mantalingahan mountain range in southern Palawan last July. I hope to return to the place to obtain more individuals of this probably undescribed species. Last June, I spent a week in a lowland forest of Palawan , still part of Northern Sierra Madre Park , and discovered a new species of Amphicnemis and two new species of Drepanosticta. With the help of all those who have been working on our damselflies, I hope to be able to come out with a Handbook on Philippine damselflies in the near future. I welcome their valuable help. Address: Dept of Entomology, Univ. of the Philippines Los Baños College , Laguna 4031, Philippines ; e-mail:vicgap@laguna.net

Vincent Kalkman – A few months ago I started working on a study of the Oriental representatives of the family Megapodagrionidae. This family contains well over 200 species that are largely confined to the tropical parts of both the old and new world, the largest diversity being found in South America , Madagascar and New Guinea . The family is represented in Asia and Australasia with 21 genera, most of them having between 1 and 10 species. An exception is the largely New Guinean genus Argiolestes that has 36 species. The work will concentrate first at making a number of revisions of some smaller genera and describing the larva of as many genera as possible (read available). In a later stage it is hoped to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the family partly based on DNA-analyses. I would be grateful if people would inform me of the existence of material (larva or adults) or pictures of Megapodagrionidae. Also I would appreciate any information on field-observations as information on behavior and habitat is scarce.

Steffen Oppel – In November 2003 I arrived in Papua New Guinea to work as a research assistant for the Wildlife Conservation Society. While my task was mainly ornithological fieldwork, I was immediately overwhelmed by the richness of the odonate fauna in our study area near Crater Mountain , 70 km SE of Goroka. I spent nine months in the pristine rainorest surrounding the research station and found some 65 species of 13 families, identification still pending for most of them. Identification will proceed in collaboration with John Dobunaba from the Forest Research Institute in Lae, PNG, and with John Michalski.

Many of the forest-dwelling damselflies were extremely rare, encountered only once or twice in several months (i.e. Podopteryx selysi). I have been recording habitat variables for all encounters and hope to build a database that would enable me to build habitat models for a few of the more common species. Some species appeared to occur seasonally, which is surprising since the site is aseasonal forest with continuously high rainfall. In May I started a project supported by the International Dragonfly Fund (IDF) to compare the faunas of a pristine rainforest and a mixed secondary forest/garden site. This aims to identify the species that are mostly affected by deforestation or water degradation following human settlement.

I also carried out a small project on Neurobasis kimminsi, marking individuals and following their movements for several weeks. This work is almost completed and should be published in due course.

Back in Germany I will busy myself with data analysis and write-up, and hope to be returning to the study area next year to work on habitat relationships of selected species. For further information or assistance in identification and analysis you are welcome to contact me via E-mail: steffen.oppel@gmx.net

Reagan Joseph Villanueva – My odonatological study at present is hampered by academic demands. Field-work is limited to available time, and usually confined to Davao City areas. After meeting with Jan van Tol and Vincent Kalkman last March, I was able to visit several sites and collected some interesting species. In all, I have collected two undescribed Amphicnemis species belonging to furcata-group, one Coeliccia (Asthenocnemis) that needs further samples for verification, two undescribed males of Risiocnemis moroensis, and 2-3 undescribed Drepanosticta species, one similar to D. mylitta and the two to D. lymetta, all from Mindanao. I was also able to rear to adult emergence the larvae of Pseudagrion pilidorsum, Paragomphus balneorum, Tetracanthagyna bakeri, Idionyx philippa, Diplacina bolivari and D. brauri. Current efforts on rearing the larva of Heteronaias heterodoxa and on searching the whereabouts of Risiocnemis, Teinobasis and Drepanosticta larvae remained unsuccessful. D3C Gahol Apartment, Lope Jaena St. , Daváo City , 8000. Philippines .

Jan van Tol – The last illustrations of my revision of the Drepanosticta species of the Philippines , excluding the Drepanosticta halterata-group, were prepared during the summer of 2004. All species are described and illustrated, including 21 new species and one new genus. This work will be published early 2005. In co-operation with Dirk Gassmann I have prepared a manuscript on the zoogeography of freshwater invertebrates of South-East Asia , with special reference to Odonata. Results of the Calicnemiinae studies of Dirk Gassmann, and some results of my own studies of the Sulawesi Odonata, are included. My database of the Odonata of the world, a contribution to the EU-funded Species 2000 project, should be available by the end of 2004 via www.odonata.info. I hope to finish several projects that are long overdue on the Sulawesi Odonata this winter, including descriptions of Chlorocyphidae. Later in 2005, I expect to continue my studies on the Platystictidae of South-East Asia, with descriptions of so many still undescribed taxa from Vietnam , Sulawesi , the Moluccas and New Guinea . Field trips to Vietnam , the Philippines and Kalimantan are in various stages of preparation.

SOME NOTES ON DRAGONFLIES OBSERVED AT THE KBFSC, BRUNEI

Vincent Kalkman

Last year I had the opportunity of spending two weeks in the Kuala Belalong Field Study Centre (KBFSC) in order to help Rodzay Wahab with collecting of larva for a course he was following at the Leiden University . The KBFSC lies in the eastern part of Brunei in the Batu Apoi Forest reserve and has a well studied dragonfly fauna with 49 species already known from the surroundings of the field centre (see Orr 2001). The centre is ideal for the study of dragonflies as there are several different undisturbed habitats within a few hundred meters of the complex and approximately 60 to 70 species can be found in the area. Most of my time in KBFSC was spend collecting larva. This was sometimes slow and rather boring compared with the easy success and direct rewards you get when catching adults. But every evening, when going through the material, I was surprised to see the number and the diversity of the collected larva. Comparing the collected larva with the collected adults would give the impression that they were collected at totally different sites. Some species, such Libellago semiopaca and Prodasineura verticalis, were common above the water but were rather difficult to find as larva, while gomphids were seldom seen as adults but were by far the most common group beneath the water. The list of species encountered as larvae but not as adults is rather long and included several species of Gomphids, one or two Cordulids and Tetracanthagyna sp. The larvae collected will hopefully be described someday. Here I describe some of the interesting observation made during my two weeks stay.

Rhinagrion- larva : Several larvae of the megapodagrionid-genus Rhinagrion, most likely R. borneense, were caught at a small river (Sitam) running out in the Belalong River . So far 8 species of Rhinagion have been described, two from which descriptions of the larva have been published: Rhinagion philippinum by Needham & Gyger (1939) and R. mima by Lieftinck (1956). In addition to this description, two drawings of the Rhinagrion larva have been published, one depicting Rhinagrion borneense (Orr, 2003) and one of Rhinagrion sp. (van Tol, 1992). (Drawings will be found in website version, Ed). Several different configurations of the anal appendages are found in the larvae of Megapodagrionidae, often unique for the family. The anal appendages of Rhinagrion are not only different from other families but also different from those of other species of Megapodagrionidae. Lieftinck (1956) noted that the paraprocts are larger than the epiproct and that they have a thicker cuticle and are undulated. Both Maus Lieftinck and Bert Orr probably never had the chance to study living larva of Rhinagrion, otherwise they would have noted that the larva holds the paraprocts not spread as in other larvae but together. Both the paraprocts are undulated and pressed together they form a tube holding the epiproct. Figure 1 (shown on Web version) gives an impresssion of this based on a sketch in my notebook. A living larva studied with a stereomicroscope revealed that the epiproct was swung from side to side with a high frequency. Probably this was done in order to increase the oxygen intake. It is possible that in normal situations, in water with a higher oxygen content, the frequency may be lower or the epiproct might even be motionless. The configuration of the appendages gives the impression that the paraprocts mainly serve to protect the epiproct. This might be an adaptation to an environment in which torrential flows regularly occur. An additional function might be that it hides the movement of the epiproct from the eyes of predators. Another species with aberrant appendages of which the living larva was observed under a stereomicroscope was a Devadatta sp. This species belongs to the Amphipterygidae, a small family in which the appendages are squat and in which the main respiratory-organ is formed by two filamentous tufts present between the appendages just below the anus. This species is also illustrated in Orr (2003). In living larva the epiproct was raised making the filamentous tufts visible from above. These tufts were retracted and exposed again once every few seconds.

Rhinacypha cognata : The behaviour of Rhinocypha cognata (as R. stygia) is very briefly described in Bert Orr’s paper on territorial and courtship display in Bornean Chlorocyphidae (Orr 1996). Based on five observed contests between males he writes that ‘contest observed were brief (less than 1 min.) and involved a rapid ascent with the pair facing one another with the hindwing held forward and canted vertically, displaying the small terminal spot. The abdomen was apparently not displayed’. I was able to observe territorial behaviour of two males for about 15 minutes. Both were sitting on branches of a fallen tree about 1.80m above the water and about 40cm from each other. When one male would start flying the other reacted immediately and display started. This involved both males flying in a shaking way (horizontal) passing each other head to head at about 5 to 15 cm distance. After they passed both made a curve in order to confront again. No signalling with the wings, legs or abdomen was observed, the latter was slightly curved downwards. This behaviour stopped after a minute or so with one of the males sitting down, starting all over again with one of the males taking off. One time a third male arrived which was followed by a rapid ascending chase in circles of 30-40 cm, too fast to observe anything. Strangely the behaviour observed by me is rather different than that observed by Bert Orr.

Coeliccia nigrohamata : This species was rather common at a seepage area near the field-station. Most times they were seen sitting on the tips of leaves a meter or so above the ground. Only once territorial behaviour was observed: two males faced towards each other and were harassing with their legs. While doing so they remained more or less still in the air.

Faunistic notes : The following common Bornean species, not mentioned for the station by Orr (2001), were found within one kilometre of the field station: Copera vittata, Neurothemis terminata, Tyriobapta torrida and Trithemis aurora. Also new for the field station isTetracanthagyna sp. which was only found as a larva. I was not able to study the material afterwards and therefore do not know which species is involved. The larvae were found between clumps of small root at the banks of the Belalong river. Although larvae probably belonging to Leptogomphus were common, only two adults were found, interestingly belonging to two, both rare, species. One fresh male of Leptogomphus pasia Van Tol, 1990 was found at Mata Ikan, a small brook near the field station. Thus far this species was only known from a male and a female caught at 2 localities in Sabah . Another fresh male found at a seepage area belonged to L. pendleburyi Laidlaw 1934, known only from the type specimen, a male caught at Mount Kinabalu . The number of different Gomphid larva caught surpasses the number of species known from KBFSC making clear that several other species are to be expected. For example larva likely to belong to Gomphidia, a genus not yet recorded from Brunei , were found several kilometres south of the field station. Several species of the family Platystictidae were found at the seepages area near the field station. Numbers were very low, but repeated visits to this site were each time productive. Besides D. rufostigma and D. versicolor several undescribed but known (Orr, 2001) species of Drepanosticta and Protosticta were collected. One of these was a male with a very long abdomen (Protosticta sp. B as mentioned in Orr, 2001) caught sitting one meter above the ground. Only a small number of seepage areas in the Batu Apoi Forest reserve have been sampled making it likely that several other new species of Platystictidae are to be found.

Lieftinck, M.A., 1956. Revision of the genus Argiolestes (Odonata) in New Guinea and the Moluccas , with notes on the larval forms of the family Megapodagrionidae. Nova Guinea , n.s. 7: 59-121.

Orr, A.G. 1996. Territorial and courtship displays in Bornean Chlorocyphidae (Zygoptera). Odonatologica 25(2) 119-141.

Orr, A.G ., 2001. An annotated checklist of the Odonata of Brunei with ecological notes and descriptions of hitherto unknown males and larvae. International Journal Odonatology 4(2) 167-220.

Orr, A.G ., 2003. A guide to the dragonflies of Borneo , their identification and biology. Natural History Publication ( Borneo ), Kota Kinabalu.

Tol, J., van 1992. An annotated index to names of Odonata used in publications by M.A. Lieftinck. Zoologische Verhandelingen 279.