Odonates from Mato Grosso and southern Para, Amazonian Brazil, November 2008 : |
From November 12 - 24, 2008 Sheridan and I were on a birding trip to south-central Brazil, and while there I tried to photograph every odonate that came my way. Sites visited were:
A small clear flowing forest stream on the Chapada dos Guimaraes - a spectacular sandstone outcrop east of Cuiaba the captial of Mato Grosso state (= CDG).
Along the banks and within half-a-mile of the Rio Azul at Pousada Rio Azul in southern Para state c. 4 hours by vehicle north of Alta Floresta, northern Mato Grosso state (=PRA).
Roadside swampy ponds with riparian edges in mostly cleared ranchland between Rio Azul and Rio Cristalino (=RSP).
Along the Rio Cristalino and in forest within half-a-mile of the river at Cristalino Jungle Lodge, northernmost Mato Grosso state (=CJL).
Along a forested road close to the banks of the Rio Teles Pirres near Cristalino Jungle Lodge (=RTP).
NOTE: The numbers assigned on this page to each entry correspond to those used in the image filenames; entries are grouped as best I can by morphological type and therefore are not in numerical order:
12): A Hetaerina on thin twigs overhanging a shallow spring-fed lagoon next to the river at PRA.
20): A Hetaerina from a boat, on a tree branch in the river at CJL.
18): A female Hetaerina above knee-height in sunlit patch along narrow forest trail in tall unbroken forest c.800 yards from river at CJL; I saw one other like this along a similar trail at the same site.
23): perched at chest height in asunlit ptach along a narrow enclosed trail through primary forest c. 500 yards from the River at PRA. Two males were perched c. 5 feet apart in the same sunlit patch, and they would "spar" by chasing each other slowly in a repeated figure-of-eight path level to the ground at about head height for an extended period - from 3 to 15 minutes nonstop - then perch on their respective leaves for less than a minute before repeating the process. Per Dennis Paulson: a Mnesarete:
