THATBIOLOGISTS have said that the coolest thing about this species is:
"This dragonfly has the longest migration of any insect, it travels with the monsoon season from India to Southern and the East of Africa. That comes to around 14,000 kilometers! It is also known to be the highest flying insect having been seen at 6,200m above sea level in the Himalayas."
From that explanation, I thought, has this one just arrived from somewhere? Because I found this one on the coast of Aceh, in the north of the island of Sumatra. Does it come from India?
In the search for identity, or identification of this dragonfly, I use the description "dragonfly, yellow body and red eyes". So, Google took me to a BugGuide who called this "Yellow Dragonfly with Red Eyes" and gave me its scientific name as Pantala flavescens. It is a species of dragonfly up to 4.5 cm long, with a wingspan of between 7.2 cm and 8.4 cm. The wings are clear and very broad at the base. Yellowish pterostigma, transparent wings and red eyes take up most of the head. It is known as a glober skimmer, one in the family Libellulidae.
This description: "the males have reddish yellow abdomen marked with black whereas the females lack the reddish wash in abdomen," tells me that the dragonfly in these pictures is a female. That I saw flying around the mangrove swamp near the beach.
If it was one of the Globe skimmer dragonflies, as I believe, and they were globe wanderers, had a flight capability of over 6000 km, and was one of the furthest migrations known of all insect species, as said, I would be Curious where did this one come from? It is said that their arrival to the tropics coincided with the convergence of the northeast and southeast trade winds. Is it that time? This was discovered in October.
Sources:
Thatbiologist
BugGuide
Wikipedia