Nepal & Himalayan Region

Eastern Nepal

There are many non-Nepal-recorded species that I have photographed in Northeast India, China, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Some of these are also found in Nepal, but I have not photographed them in Nepal. I would like to include these here on a separate page because some are new to science, and some are rarely seen.

Zygoptera

Family Platystictidae

Protosticta himalaica 

Laidlaw 1917 

Elevation 800- 1200 m 

Abdomen length 40- 43 mm 

I have seen this one in two locations now. The first time was in Sikkim on the way to Yuksam in a small organic tea estate. The second was at a seepage in Tsirang district, Barshong Gewog, Bhutan. Its habitat was very different between the two locations. Sikkim site was a tea estate stream, and the Bhutan site was a well-vegetated drinking water collection station. Both sightings were in May - the first photo is from Bhutan on 7th May, and the rest are from Sikkim on 27th May.

Family Calopterygidae

Matrona nigripectus

Selys 1879

Elevation 1000- 1500 m

Abdomen length 52- 54 mm

Location: Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh

This is another species that is seen in northeast India, from Assam to Myanmar. I found this female sitting on a dirty stream behind the Zoo in Itanagar. I only saw this one specimen in October.

Echo margarita

Selys 1853

Elevation 800-1400m

Abdomen length 44- 46 mm

Location: Near Kohima, Nagaland

I photographed E. margarita near Kohima, Nagaland. I have read that it was also photographed in Arunachal Pradesh. Fraser lists it as from Cherrapunji, Assam. It seems that the distribution is in Northeast India and is likely to be found in Northern Myanmar. It was seen in September on a well-vegetated small stream, and there were several flying around.

Family Euphaeidae

Euphaea ochracea

Selys 1859

Elevation ranges from 800 - 1700m

Abdomen length 33- 35 mm

Location: East Nepal - Jhapa

A hill species found on running water with the same characteristics and behavior as others in the genus. Its most noticeable feature in males is the dark ochre-colored wings and the deep orange colored lines on the thorax. It is found across northeast India, Myanmar, and Thailand. In Nepal, it is located in the far east near Ilam. The photos below are from Arunachal Pradesh near Namdapha National Park.
Male

Female

Family Chlorocyphidae

Aristocypha cuneata

(Selys 1853)

Elevation Range 500-1000m

Abdomen length: 24 mm

Location: Zhemgang District, Royal Manas buffer area, Bhutan

This is a species found in East Nepal, from the Ilam area. I have seen it in Bhutan at two locations. In Nepal, it is recorded in Assam, Sikkim, and Darjeeling, WB. The identity is determined by the wide blue thoracic triangle and the wide band of opaque areas near the pterostigma. I have seen it between May and August.
Male

Female

Aristocypha iridea iridea

(Selys 1891)

Elevation Range 1000-2000m

Abdomen length: 20- 22 mm

Location: Tengchong Volcanic Field, Yunnan, China

I photographed this beauty in a flowing stream inside the Tengchong Volcanic Park in Yunnan. It was sitting on vegetation above the stream and was not too disturbed by all the people walking past. The thoracic triangle is not as well developed as it is in other Aristocypha sp. The young male in the top photo has not developed the blue coloration of the mature specimen seen below it. The female looks like an immature male, having yellow markings and hyaline wings. It is recorded in Myanmar and Thailand from May to August. It is not recorded in Nepal.
Male

Female

Heliocypha perforata limbata

Selys 1879

Elevation: 600m

Abdomen length: 16- 18 mm

Locations: Mizoram and Changlang Dist. Arunachal Pradesh

This is such a beautiful damselfly to see. I found it on a small stream across the valley from Miao, AP. Chlorocyphidae males are typically aggressive and fight fierce aerial battles over territory where females might appear. The males in the photos below were battling each other. The last photo is a blur of a wing that actually shows the beautiful wing pattern. This H. perforata group probably needs more work since there are three subspecies. These photos were taken in mid-November. No females were seen at that time.
Male




Family Lestidae

Lestes dorothea

Fraser, 1924

Elevation 700- 1400 m

Abdomen length 40mm

Location: Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh

These photos are not from Nepal; they are from Meghalaya, but I put them in to add some information and show how similar L. dorothea is to L. praemorsus. The lateral side of the thorax is different, and the shape of the anal appendages is different. It is found in Nepal in the Kaski District, the Pokhara area.



Family Coenagrionidae

Enallagma cyathigerum risi

Schmidt, 1961

Elevation 2000- 3000 m

Abdomen Length

Location: Borith Lake, Baltistan, Pakistan

This is a confirmed ID for this subspecies. It is based on the strongly curved spine of the superior anal appendages. It was found on the plants near Borith Lake, a saline lake in the photo below, in the upper Hunza Valley near Passu, Baltistan (elevation 2600m). It is listed as being found in Kashmir and Tibet. The males were very active and hunting for females. I saw a few females and some tandem pairs, but they were not accessible for a photo. This species is not recorded in Nepal.




Borith Lake

Ischnura annandalei

Laidlaw 1919

Elevation 800m

Abdomen Length 24mm

Location Inle Lake, Myanmar

A species that is very closely allied to the I. rufostigma group and has two color forms in the female. I only have photos of the males. We were in a boat, and it was hard to get close enough to get a good photo. Asahina separated this species from I. rufostigma in 1991, so it will not be recorded in Nepal since it is found in the Shan State of Myanmar.

Male


Female

Ischnura senegalensis

Rambur 1842

Elevation: sea level to 300m

Abdomen lengt: 21-- 23 mm

Location Naypyidaw Myanmar

This is such a common species throughout Asia. I am surprised it is not found in the terrai area of Nepal. But most likely it will be found at some point. The coloration leaves no doubt about the ID. This is not recorded in Nepal, but it seems likely that it will be found in the Terai region.

Pseudagrion australasiae

Selys, 1876

Elevation of sea level to 300m

Abdomen length 21- 23 mm

Location Naypyidaw Myanmar

Formerly called P. bengalense by Fraser (1933). This one is so similar to P. microcephalum that I didn't realize I had photos of it. I photographed this one in December 2011 in Myanmar. The primary ID points are the cream-colored labium, the larger black mark on the 2nd segment of the abdomen, and the shorter anal appendages. The greenish-blue female has thick black markings on segments 2 and 8 and a thin black line on the dorsum of the thorax. This one is also found in Nepal.

Family Platycnemididae

Coeliccia schmidti

Asahina 1984

Elevation 800m

Abdomen length

Location: Yuksum Road, Sikkim

The location for this was Sikkim, near Sangmo, in a dark forest above the Temi Tea Estate. The date was 27th May 2013. This species is difficult to ID; however, there are some differences between this species and the one below, C. svihleri. The traits in the photo that distinguish C. schmiditi from the other are the yellow patterns on the prothorax and abdominal segments 9 and 10. C. schmidti was recorded in Nagaland by Joshi et al. (2014), but he has retracted that sighting and says it was C. svihleri. Asahina gave a brief description and several drawings of this species in 1984, but they were misleading. If this is C. schmidti, it is most likely endemic to Northeast India.

Male: 

C. svihleri above C. schmidti below

Prothorax details C. svihleri (top) C. schmidti (bottom)

 

Anal appendages C. svihleri and C. schmidti dorsal view

C. schmidti anal appendage lateral

Female

Side-by-side females: left C. svihleri, right C. schmidti.

Coeliccia svihleri

Asahina 1970

Elevation 800- 1000 m

Abdomen length?

Location: Papum Pare, Arunachal Pradesh

Recorded locations include the Papum Pare area near Itanagar and Tsirang, Bhutan. The above group has many of these same photos used for comparison with C. schmidti. The location was a very dark, slightly swampy, heavily vegetated area near a river. 

Coeliccia sp. nov.

Elevation 800m

Abdomen Length?

Location Tsirang Bhutan

After leaving Barshong Gewog in Bhutan and driving to Tsirang, we came to a small stream with a lot of rubble. We stopped and soon saw this lovely Coleccia sp. hanging on fallen branches in the stream. I could only stop for a few minutes, but this was a special sighting—23 May 2017. It looks very similar to Coeliccia didyma but has enough differences that it will need to be described.

Calicnemia mortoni

(Laidlaw, 1917)

Elevation: 1300- 20000 m

Abdomen length: 33- 36 mm

Location: 10 km east of Wangdue Phodrang, Bhutan

I saw this one at a good-sized stream on the Punakha-Thimphu Highway about 12km from Wangdue. Quite a few were on the stream, both males and females, on 28 May. It has been recorded in East Sikkim and Gangtok. This is another one that should be found in Nepal, on the east side, close to the Sikkim border.

Male

Female

Calicnemis miniata

Selys 1886

Elevation 1000- 1600 m

Abdomen length 30- 32 mm

Locations: Bhutan & Sikkim

I saw these in May in both Sikkim and Bhutan. The habitats were similar, as both were near small waterfalls on a stream. The key ID feature of the male is the bright red line across the vertex and red face. The female is similar to the male. The locations given in the literature place it south of Gangtok and near Tsirang, Bhutan. This one, found in Nepal, was in the east near Ilam.
Male



Female


Family Epiophlebidae

Epiophlebia laidlawi

Tillyard 1921

Elevation 1800- 2800 m

Locations in Bhutan - North of Thimphu and Bumthang

Together with members from the UWICE institute in Bumthang, we went to check several streams for the larvae, since it seemed such a perfect spot. We found one larva at our first stop and three at another. Without damaging them, we took photos and quickly returned them to the water. The larvae were between 17mm and 20mm long, dark reddish-brown in color, and the wing buds were at the 2nd abdominal segment. All the larvae found were at the same developmental stage, instar level 6-7. One appears to be a male.
E. laidlawi was once found in the Nagmati River in the Shiva Puri watershed above the Kathmandu Valley, but it has been dammed, and the water was diverted. That site is now lost. Another site at Daman, where the largest number of larvae were found by Nesemann et al. (2011), has also been dammed, and the habitat was destroyed by earthquake victims in 2015-2016 when a large settlement was placed in the Sim Khola watershed.




An Epiophlebia stream near Bumthang on the UWICE compound.

Family Cordulidae

Cordulegaster brevistigma

Selys 1854

Elevation 2500- 3400 m

Abdomen Length 

Location: Sost, Baltistan, Pakistan

I was standing next to a small irrigation canal when this large dragonfly landed in a willow tree next to the canal. It was very hard to get into the best position to photograph it. Several people were watching me, wondering why I was taking photos in a tree, aiming at something they couldn't see. I have tried my best to identify this one, and based on a long article by Fraser 1929 called A revision of the Fissilabioidea Part 1 Crodulegastridae. If this is not correct, please let me know in the comments.






Family Aeshnidae

Gynacantha sp.?

Fraser 

Elevation 800- 1400 m

Abdomen Length 48mm

Location: Namdapha National Park core area

I photographed this one in December in a small swampy area on the way to Firm-Base Camp in Namdapha National Park. A female was seen actively ovipositing in the grasses and reeds around the swamp. This could be G. bainbriggei with the thorax markings and wing venation details, but the described coloration of the abdomen does not match closely. Given the remote location, this may be a new species. I checked the G. bainbriggei specimen in the British Natural History Museum collection, but it is so faded that it is hard to say.

Gynacantha subinterrupta

Rambur 1842

Elevation 110- 800 m

Abdomen Length44- 50 mmm

Location - Naypyidaw, Myanmar

I was standing in a busy hotel lobby in Naypyidaw when I heard the wings of a dragonfly trapped inside the room. I removed it, took a few photos, and then released it.


Family Gomphidae

Davidius aberrans aberrans

(Selys, 1873)

Elevation: 1700- 3000 m

Abdomen length: 27 mm

Location Bhutan

I first saw this species at the Royal Botanic Gardens outside of Thimphu at 2700m, then again at Gangety Monastery sitting above Phobjikha Valley at 2800m. The third record was from Haa Valley, also at nearly 2800m. The date was 22nd May, and the other was in early August. Fraser reported this species in Assam, Northeast India. This one is reported to be found in Nepal, but so far unrecorded.

 

Lamelligomphus sp. nov.

Elevation 580m

Location: Miao, Arunachal Pradesh

In late October, I visited a small stream North of Miao. This Lamelligomphus was sitting on the stones and was not very shy. The size, sparse markings, and pincer-like anal appendages are typical of the genus. This one resembles L. risi, but the black anal appendages, face coloration, and fewer thoracic markings are not the same. 

Just to compare, below is a photo of Lamelligomphus risi.

Family Libellulidae

Lathrecista asiatica

(Fabricius, 1879)

Elevation of sea level: 600 m

Abdomen length: 27- 32 mm

Location: Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan

This one is widespread throughout the region. Surprisingly, it has not been recorded in Nepal, but it probably will show up at some point.
It has a long, uniformly slender abdomen that ranges from blood red to orangish color depending on age and sex. The female is very similar to the male but does not turn dark red. The photos below are of a female.