3 Iota Ringtail at Mount Clear, ACT
Identification history
| Austrolestes io | 1 Nov 2019 | HarveyPerkins | ||
| Austrolestes annulosus | 31 Oct 2019 | SWishart |
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Significant sighting
User's notes
There were very few dragonflies at any of the swamp/creek areas along Old Boboyan Road. I think these were around an inch (give or take a few millimeters) and I didn't see a female
3 comments
HarveyPerkins
wrote:
1 Nov 2019
Wow - another great sighting! The reason for so few dragonflies is that it is still very early in the season for those high country streams and they won't become really active for another month or so. But, this species appears to be an early season specialist, at least in the ACT.
It is in fact an Iota Ringtail. Until last Sunday, during the COG bird blitz, I'd only seen them twice: a male and female at a pond at Gleneagles golf course in late September, and a single male at Grassy Creek where Boboyan Rd crosses it on 22 November, both in 2015. Never seen since despite being on the lookout. Last Sunday I found up to 4-5 individuals at three separate locations, all highland grassy valley streams, two along Grassy Creek, and one along the small creek that descends from Brayshaw's Hut to the Naas Creek. Ironically, I was at the exact spot you found this individual while blitzing three days earlier, at 14:40 h on Sunday, but by then it had turned cloudy and windy and I saw no dragonfly activity at all.
This species appears to be quite scarce in the south-east of Australia, a little more common in the SW of WA. Like the Inland Ringtail, I'm still trying to work out just what it's status here is. So thanks for your observation.
It is in fact an Iota Ringtail. Until last Sunday, during the COG bird blitz, I'd only seen them twice: a male and female at a pond at Gleneagles golf course in late September, and a single male at Grassy Creek where Boboyan Rd crosses it on 22 November, both in 2015. Never seen since despite being on the lookout. Last Sunday I found up to 4-5 individuals at three separate locations, all highland grassy valley streams, two along Grassy Creek, and one along the small creek that descends from Brayshaw's Hut to the Naas Creek. Ironically, I was at the exact spot you found this individual while blitzing three days earlier, at 14:40 h on Sunday, but by then it had turned cloudy and windy and I saw no dragonfly activity at all.
This species appears to be quite scarce in the south-east of Australia, a little more common in the SW of WA. Like the Inland Ringtail, I'm still trying to work out just what it's status here is. So thanks for your observation.
HarveyPerkins
wrote:
1 Nov 2019
Ooops - just realised I haven't yet created this species on CNM or posted any photos. Better get on to that...
SWishart
wrote:
2 Nov 2019
Thanks. Really pleased about the sighting but I honestly thought I had the ID nailed this time! Back to the ID drawing board but probably not to the site - it's a lovely walk but not when it starts getting hot.
Location information
- Maps Namadgi National Park
- Places Mount Clear, ACT
Sighting information
- 3 Abundance
- SWishart Recorded by
-
Collections
Significant Insects Dragonflies & Damselflies (Odonata) Damselflies (Zygoptera) SWishart Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr
Additional information
- 25mm to 50mm Animal size
- Male Gender
Species information
- Austrolestes io Scientific name
- Iota Ringtail Common name
- Sensitive
- Rare or uncommon native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- 756m to 1220.8m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
