Austrophlebia costalis (Tillyard, 1907)
SOUTHERN GIANT DARNER
Family Telephlebiidae
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The Southern Giant Darner is a huge Dragonfly and purported to be one of the fastest insects on the planet. Robert Tillyard in 1917 timed one flying downhill at 98km/hr using a stop watch. In 1953 Hocking timed one over flat ground flying at 57.9km/hr. (Book of Insect Records – University of Florida) It is no wonder that it is so difficult to photograph.
Carole Dean of Dorrigo has kindly allowed me to use her photograph of one she found on their property. Trev and Carol have a great Butterfly Site called Butterflies of a Dorrigo Garden.
http://butterfliesdorrigo.weebly.com/
A couple of years ago I saw a very large dragonfly fly up one of our creeks on dusk. I suspected it might be Austrophlebia costalis. Last year a female landed very close to me on dusk, and began laying eggs into or onto a log that had one end in the water.
In December 2019, our son Danni came back from fixing our hydro electric system with 3 exuvia that he found on the rocks up there. Two were very large – 5.1cm long – and keyed out to Austrophlebia costalis!
On January 2nd 2020, we walked up a section of creek I haven’t been along before. I guess about every 10 minutes or so a Southern Giant Darner would appear on its way along the creek, usually flying very low to the water. In one section I saw 3 specimens . A female hanging from a fern and 2 other specimens, having a skirmish mid air.
In the 2019-2020 dragonfly flying season most of the national parks in NSW were closed and many creeks, pools and swamps were dry. I decided that I would spend time at home in our own creeks and try to get a photo of a flying Austrophlebia costalis.
On my first trek up the creek in December 2019 I noticed there were places that these dragonflies would stay around for a bit. They mostly flew only a few inches above the water and would duck in under ferns or near a log, or even hover right next to my legs. Mainly I chose to wait for one in a section of creek I thought they would find interesting.
On my 4th try, I walked up to a waterfall to see if any dragonflies were there, then wove my way back along the creek intending to go to the spot where I had seen the 3 Southern Giant Darners in December 2019. On my way I found another interesting spot where I waited for quite some time. I noticed a darner further up in a narrow section of the creek. There was what sounded like a clashing of wings. I am not sure if the Darner caught some rather large prey or a female. They flew towards me and up into the bushes but a Southern Giant Darner fell into the water. It did not take long for it to fly up out of the water and head up over the bushes at the side of the creek.
Continuing down the creek, I came upon a very dark pool with a large dark shape flying over it, back and forth and hovering quite often. I managed one reasonable photo of it which turned out to be a female, I think, later looking at the photo. It was getting quite late so I continued to the last spot (habitat photo). I had just given up and decided to head home when a wonderful male appeared.It spent quite a bit of time investigating this section of the creek. Yippee managed to capture it this time.( Photographically of course)
