Austrogomphus (Austrogomphus) guerini (Rambur, 1842)

YELLOW-STRIPED HUNTER

Family Gomphidae

A male Yellow-striped Hunter at Rocky Creek, Dorrigo NSW on January 31st 2014.

A female Yellow-striped Hunter at the Cathedral Rocks National NSW on January 15th 2015.

The Yellow-striped Hunter is a small dragonfly that even though quite brightly coloured, can be difficult to spot until it moves. It can be seen perched on emergent rocks in creeks and rivers.
At Deer Vale they can also be seen late on sunny days perched on our dirt road presumably absorbing heat from it. I have seen both males and females doing this.
Both male and females look similar but differences include angular wing bases in the male and rounded ones in the female, the clubbed end of the abdomen in the male while the females abdomen is almost straight, and the superior anal appendages being close together in the male and separated in the female.

A male Yellow-striped Hunter at Deer Vale NSW on November 10th 2014.

A female Yellow-striped Hunter at the Cathedral Rocks National Park NSW on January 15th 2015.

A teneral male Yellow-striped Hunter at the Bielsdown River Dorrigo NSW on December 13th 2013.

A female Yellow-striped Hunter at Deer Vale NSW on January 31st 2014.

A young male Yellow-striped Hunter at Deer Vale NSW on October 27th 2014.

A female Yellow-striped Hunter at the Cathedral Rocks National Park NSW on January 15th 2015.

A female Yellow-striped Hunter in a dam at Deer Vale NSW on January 1st 2012.

On New Years Day 2012 as I walked past our dam I noticed a Yellow-striped Hunter floundering in the water. I am not sure what had happened to it. Perhaps it had been knocked into the water by another dragonfly. It was a female so was probably laying eggs rather than hunting like the males sometimes do at this dam. It was still alive so I fished it out, took it up to the house, took some images and put it outside to fly off if it wanted too. Sometime later when I checked, it had gone.

The female Yellow-striped Hunter saved from the dam at Deer Vale NSW on January 1st 2012.