Cordulephya montana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was pretty keen to find the Mountain Shutwing in the 2016-2017 season. I had read they were on the wing earlier than the mostly autumn flying Common Shutwing, so was doubtful about finding it as January had already passed by. Never the less, I decided to go and investigate an area near where sightings had been made last century.

I expected they would probably be found resting on tree trunks but saw nothing. I wandered along Biscuit Creek to see which dragonflies were active there – mainly Swamp Tigertails, a few Yellow-striped Hunters and Emeralds. I spotted a very dark dragonfly at the edge of the creek being harassed by other dragonflies. I am not sure whether this was the same dragonfly that landed on a gum leaf very near to me just above eye height. Looking at it closely made me pretty sure that this was the Mountain Shutwing as it was larger and stouter looking than the Common Shutwings that I had seen the previous year.

Even though the leaf it landed on was blowing in the wind, I managed to get some reasonable photos to use for identification. You can see in the lateral photos that the ventral yellow stripe on the synthorax that the Common Shutwing has, is not present in the Mountain Shutwing.

These odd dragonflies from the genus Cordulephya are only found in Australia.