The Royal Tigertail in McEwan State Forest

It's not their fault they don't have feathers! Doesn't make them any less interesting. And just like the birds, it's good to know what species are about locally at any given time.

There's expertise within the club and beyond on most aspects of our local fauna. Let's tap into it.
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Rod Hobson
Posts: 509
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:03 am

The Royal Tigertail in McEwan State Forest

Post by Rod Hobson »

Folks,

In my posting "Variegated Fairy-wren, Brown Thornbill: McEwan State Forest" in "Summer Beyond - 2011/12" of 21.12.11 I listed four dragon/damselflies that we recorded on the day. It wasn't until yesterday that, on reading up on these insects, I realised how significant one of these dragonflies actually was. I refer to the Royal Tigertail (Parasynthemis regina) that several of us saw hawking over the string of puddles on the road reserve abutting the eastern edge of the estate. On reading through the late Rick Natrass' "Dragonflies of South East Queensland - A Field Guide" (2006) the author states:

" Habit: "Frequents swamps and sluggish streams in wooded country; flies fairly fast over and along the borders of billabongs and streams" (Fraser 1960).

Status: Fraser (1960) gives status as Locally Common, but in SEQ - Rare.

Locations; no known recent records for SEQ.

Flight Times: "Nov-Mar" (Fraser 1960).

Illustration is based on preserved specimen in UQ insect collection."

In another publication viz. "Lake Broadwater - The Natural History of an Inland Lake and its Environs" Odonata pundit Dennis Reeves states that he recorded the Royal Tigertail in the Lake Broadwater Conservation Park near Dalby SEQ, " ... during the period of study (February, 1984 - November, 1987)" and that it was a "somewhat enigmatic" insect. These are the only written references to this dragonfly that I can find for SEQ. Other Odonata references (Watson, Theischinger and Abbey -1991; Theischinger and Hawking - 2006) only give a very general distribution description with no refence to this dragonfly's status.

Reading through these references triggered my memory of a conversation/s that I had with my good friend and local dragonfly guru Barry Kenway. I was sure that Barry had mentioned this species to me at some stage in reference to a specimen that he collected on one of my old QPWS fauna surveys. On delving into my field journals last night I found the reference to Barry and Claus Jackel catching a single Royal Tigertail in Wondul Range National Park near Millmerran sometime between 19-21.03.04. I'm quite sure that this was/is Barry's only ever record for this rare dragonfly in SEQ.

So our find of the Royal Tigertail gazumps all the other finds for the day at McEwan's; very nice in retrospect. Always good to catch up with these "somewhat enigmatic" types of critters on your home patch.

References:

Fraser F.C. (1960). "A Handbook of the Dragonflies of Australia with Keys for the Identification of All Species", Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales.

Nattrass R. (2006). "Dragonflies of South East Queensland - A Field Guide", Bellbird Park, Published by the author.

Scott G. (Ed). (no date). "Lake Broadwater - The Natural History of an Inland Lake and its Environs", Darling Downs Institute Press, Darling Heights

Theischinger G. & Hawking J. (2006). "The Complete Guide to Dragonflies of Australia", CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.

Watson J.A.L., Theischinger G. & Abbey H.M. (1991). "The Australian Dragonflies - A Guide to the Identification, Distribution and Habitats of Australian Odonata", CSIRO Publishing, East Melbourne.

Regards,
Rod Hobson
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