New Page 2

Found in Asia: Bangladesh, China, Caucasus, Guandong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hainan, Indonesia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lao, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Russian Federation, Southern Far East Russia, South Siberia, Thailand, Taiwan, Viet Nam

Pantala flavescens, known as Wandering Glider or Globe Skimmer, is a wide-ranging dragonfly found worldwide in the tropics, as well as in temperate zones of North America and Eurasia.
A study of the gut contents of adults feeding over rice fields in Bangladesh showed that their diet consisted mainly of mosquitoes.
Pantala flavescens breeds in small, shallow, often temporary pools. Adults frequently are observed far from water.

Pantala flavescens is the most wide ranging odonate species in the world, being found throughout the tropics and subtropics of all continents. It is a fairly large for a libellulid ( hw, 40-44 mm). The hindwing is broad at the base and strongly pointed towards the apex. There is normally a small but definite brown mark at the tip of the hindwing. Fully mature males acquire a reddish tinge to the abdomen, but otherwise both males and females are overall dull brownish-yellow. It breeds mainly in temporary waters and ponds and may be present in many hundreds in open areas, along roads and around cleared hilltops far from water. However it also occurs almost anywhere in exposed situations, including mountain tops in dense primary forest up to at least 3000 m.

Males patrol territories about 30–150 ft (9–45 m) in length. After mating, the male remains in tandem while the female lays her eggs. Females oviposit by tapping the surface of the water with the tip of the abdomen. Larval development is rapid, an adaptation that allows for the use of temporary pools (including swimming pools) as breeding sites.

While other newly emerged Pantala flavescens in this drain already made their maiden flights to far away tree tops, this femal Pantala flavescens still cling on her exuvia. This Pantata will never make it to the sky.

Insects are diverse and dominant inhabitants of the tropical rainforests in Borneo Island. New species are discovered too often. Entomologists are still struggling to cope with the documentation of tropical insect diversity.

Most of the common dragonflies in Sabah are red coloured, especially from the family Libellulidae. Some red pecies are even confused as same species, for example the three species of Genus Neurothemis.

Dragonflies and damselflies have large compound eyes that can see in all directions. When the compound eye is magnified several hundred times, each individual facet (ommatidium) is shown to be hexagonal in shape.

Female dragonflies have either one of the two method of depositing eggs from the abdomen:
1- using Ovipositor Structure
2- using Vulvar Lamina

Male do not have an ovipositor. Instead male dragonfly and damselfly have appendages.

GO FURTHER

FLORA

Fig trees of Sabah

Borneo has 150 species of wild fig trees. Most of them are found in forests of Sabah.

FISHERIES

Tiger Prawn Farms in Tawau

Prawn farming is a main commercial activities in Tawau. Spawners from Tawau are graded the best in Malaysia. For decades, Tawau has been exporting high-grade tiger prawns to several countries such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Egypt and Australia.