227: Nannophya pygmaea Rambur, 1842

     Number: 227 / 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?