Telephlebia godeffroyi (Selys, 1883)

EASTERN EVENING DARNER

Family Telephlebiidae

A male Eastern Evening Darner next to a swampy creek at Deer Vale on January 31st 2012.

A female Eastern Evening Darner at Deer Vale on December 6th 2014.

The sky was showing signs of an afternoon storm brewing but I decided to go walking at a nearby swamp anyway. At the edge of this swamp that had a little creek running through it, I spotted a large brown dragonfly flying very slowly and low to the ground. I thought at the time that it looked like a pencil with wings flying. It landed on the trunk of a bush close to the ground where I was able to get a few photographs. It started to vibrate its wings warming them ready for flight. It then flew slowly down the creek and disappeared into another shrub. It was an Eastern Evening Darner - Telephlebia godeffroyi. This Darner usually flies at dusk.

The superior anal appendages of the Eastern Evening Darner are very long and pointed compared to its inferior ones.

Side view of male anal appendages.

Side view of a male Eastern Evening Darner at Deer Vale on January 31st 2012.

There is a large wide dark almost triangular mark on the top of the frons of the Eastern Evening Darner which distinguishes it from the Northern Evening Darner which has a narrower mark on the frons.

The head of a male Eastern Evening Darner showing the mark on its frons at Deer Vale on January 30th 2015.

Distorted wings of an Eastern Evening Darner.

In January 2015 I found a male Eastern Evening Darner on ferns next to a little spring fed dam at Deer Vale NSW. It had very distorted wings which hadn’t fully expanded. There wasn’t anything much I could do for it so I put it back where I found it.

Face of a male Eastern Evening Darner found next to a spring fed dam at Deer Vale on January 30th 2015.