Dragonflies at Ang Mo Kio Lotus Pond

It's been a while since I last visited the lotus pond at Ang Mo Kio. When I went there in February this year, XF grumbled that I didn't meet up with him even though it's just opposite his house, so this time round I decided to drag him along as I explored the area.


Somehow the lotuses did not seem to be doing very well though, and most of them seemed to be dying. Not sure if it's a seasonal thing.

But as usual, there were lots of dragonflies!


Here's a male Acisoma panorpoides, which is quite common in Singapore. I especially like the colour of its compound eyes - don't the eyes look like 2 little pieces of turquoise?


I often had problem identifying this blue dragonfly, which could be a Aethriamanta gracilis or Brachydiplax chalybea. I assume its the former in this case though, since the dragonfly is not very big, and the latter is supposed to be bigger.


I was pleasantly surprised to see this big blue dragonfly, probably a Orthetrum glaucum.


Other than the blue dragonflies, we saw several red ones too. Had thought the above is a Crocothemis servilia, but on checking again, thought the red is not as bright as the usual C. servilia that I've seen, and it doesn't have a black line on its abdomen, so it's probably a Rhodothemis rufa instead.


Here's another red dragonfly. Looks rather similar to the previous one, but I think it is probably a Orthetrum testaceum as the colour of the eyes looks different. Note sure if I'm right though.


This one looks like a Orthetrum chrysis to me.


And of course, we also spotted this very common dragonfly, Neurothemis fluctuans.


Apart from the dragonflies, there were several damselflies too. The above is one of them, but I won't attempt to try to identify its species, since frankly speaking, many of them just look too similar to me.


With so many dragonflies and damselflies, there are some of their predators around too, such as the batik golden web spider (Nephila antipodiana).


There were also several lizards around, including this green-crested lizard (Bronchocela cristatella). It is now rather uncommon to see these lizards, as they were out-competed by the introduced changeable lizard.

It was rather amazing when you think about it, that there were still so many little pockets of nature among the concrete jungles of Singapore. Just a short walk around a little pond in the middle of the neighbourhood, and I was rewarded with so many interesting wildlife!