Found in Asia: China, Hainan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Viet Nam Photos from: Brunei Darussalam[BN] Cambodia[KH] Indonesia[ID] Malaysia[MY] Philippines[PH] Singapore[SG] Thailand[TH]
Orthetrum testaceum testaceum (Burmeister, 1839) Photo taken in Tawau (Malaysia) on 2007-02-16
Picture 3 : At 5:53PM, after about 5 minutes of joining, the two break apart. The female immediately proceed to the water without taking a short rest like other species.
While the female ovipositing, this male maintain about 6 inches above the female. Normally a male maintain 1 or 2 meters near by. This unusual near distance is immediately understood when seeing few other equally aggressive males are just few meters away. Every few seconds, a nearby male would dart into the ovipositing female and this male would fight him off.
Orthetrum testaceum testaceum (Burmeister, 1839) Photo taken in Tawau (Malaysia) on 2007-02-16
Picture 6 : At 5:55PM The first female completed her oviposting and fly off and disappeared into near by bush leaving this second female continue ovipositing.
This male Orthetrum testaceum testaceum (Burmeister, 1839) continue to maintain an unusual close distance of 6 inches above this second female to guard her from a few other males near.
A moment later this second female completed ovipositing and flew off into the bush leaving the male alone to guard his territory. And also leaving me to ponder for the rest of the night on these insects ---- why this young male has the chances of 2 while the other equally young and strong have the chance of 0 ?
Orthetrum testaceum testaceum (Burmeister, 1839) Photo taken in Tawau (Malaysia) on 2007-02-16
Picture 2 : This pair of Orthetrum testaceum testaceum (Burmeister, 1839) copulated for 5 minutes, long enough for me to photograph a few close up images.
Now, for the first time, I can see exactly where the male dragonfly holds the female --- the upper neck behind the eyes.