Darners sometimes land in odd places. The first Darner from the family Telephlebiidae that I saw was perched on the gauge of an old generator at Deer Vale NSW. This one turned out to be Austroaeschna parvistigma, the Swamp Darner.
A male Swamp Darner at Deer Vale NSW on December 20th 2007.
A male Swamp Darner at Deer Vale on December 20th 2007.
A male Swamp Darner at Deervale NSW on February 23rd 2012.
A female Swamp Darner at Deer Vale NSW on February 2012. Notice the pale patches on the mesofemur and the metafemur. Both male and females have these spots.
Wings of male Swamp Darner.
Wings of female Swamp Darner.
Like the Blue-spotted Hawker, Adversaeschna brevistyla, the male Swamp Darner has angular hind wing bases while the female has rounded hind wing bases.
According to Gunther Theischinger and John Hawking in their book “The Complete Field Guide to Australian Dragonflies” the adult Austroaeschna parvistigma is similar to Austroaeschna multipunctata, (Multi- spotted Darner) but one difference is that only the upper portion of the anterior face of the frons is dark in the former whereas it is completely dark in the latter. The Multi-spotted Darner however, is not found in NE NSW.
Upper portion of anterior face of frons is dark in the Swamp Darner.
Anal appendages of a male Swamp Darner.
On February 25th 2012 a female Swamp Darner was flying around a paddock near our house at Deer Vale. It flew mostly within 1-2 metres of the ground and occasionally darted up much higher. Three times it flew very close to me and was definitely investigating me. It may have landed on the back of my grey track pants and if not was at least as far as I could see, less than a cm from me. After 10 minutes or so, it landed on the corrugated iron wall of the chook shed where I was able to photograph it.
A female Swamp Darner which landed on an old shed at Deervale NSW February 25th 2012.
A lucky shot of a female Swamp Darner flying at Deer Vale NSW February 25th 2012.