Trithemis festiva

A dragonfly species I notice if you see one you will see many, probably from the same hatchings. Observing dragonflies skimming and hovering around on a windy sunny day always cheer me up.


When you next have the chance, feel it, live it and you will understand what I mean. It will give new meaning to the phrase “stopping to smell the grass”. Some folks will say there are better things to do but what are the better things to do?

Gomphidae - Gomphidictinus perakensis

A large dragonfly and by looking at the way it take flight a strong flyer too. There are 15 odonate families in Penisular Malaysia and Gomphidae forms the second largest family with 35 species. I found this beautiful specimen at a foothill near a running stream.

Dragonflies of Malaysia - Crimson Dropwing (Trithemis Aurora)

To begin with let’s start off with some basic information on what is a dragonfly
A dragonfly is an insect, have six legs, sees the world through large multifaceted eyes, comes with two pairs of strong transparent wings, all housed in an elongated body (....we all know that, of course!). It belongs to the order Odonata, suborder Epiprocta....infraorder Anisoptera.....and so forth. They are usually sighted near ponds, lakes and wetlands because their nymphs are aquatic, to put it in less entomological terms, dragonfly babies are born and before developing wings, spend their lives in water.



More interesting facts about dragonflies are, even with six legs they are incapable of walking. Dragonflies are predators that devour other small insects like mosquitoes, flies and ants. On a hot sunny day dragonflies would point its tail end towards the sun, minimizing its body surface exposure to the sun to keep itself cool. A dragonfly can fly in multi directions, upward, downward, forward, back, and side to side. In most dragonfly species the males are brightly colored and more attractive then the females

Most of the dragonfly’s life are spent as a nymph, it has been documented that some species are nymphs for a few years before it metamorphosed into a flying dragonfly only for a few months.
Photo of a male Crimson Dropwing is shown above. It is the only known dragonfly species in Peninsular Malaysia to have this dark rosy pink color. The female species has a dull brownish yellow color with a tinge of pink patches in some parts of the body. I observe males are more common then females.