Austroargiolestes calcaris

Powdered Flatwing at Rendezvous Creek, ACT

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Identification history

Austroargiolestes calcaris	1 Jan 2023	HarveyPerkins
Austroargiolestes icteromelas	31 Dec 2022	KorinneM
Unidentified	28 Dec 2022	KorinneM

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User's notes

Right next to the water at Rendezvous Creek. I can't determine which of the Flatwings it is. I don't know whether we can see enough to identify. Used the D&D standard book guide too.

3 comments

KorinneM wrote:

1 Jan 2023

@HarveyPerkins - yay, a new species for me! I really had trouble with this one. What was it that you can see here that identifies it as the powdered, if you have the time to answer? :-)

HarveyPerkins wrote:

2 Jan 2023

Hi @KorinneM - the flatwings that occur in the ACT can be extremely difficult to tell apart sometimes, based only on photographs. Frequently, location and habitat is a strong indicator, but in this case, at this part of Rendezvous Creek, you could have both Common and Powdered Flatwings. And Grey-chested Flatwings also occur not too far away in the right habitat. To be honest, I'm not absolutely confident on the ID in this case. The length of the anal claspers, and the paleness of the last two abdominal segments is more in line with my experience of Common Flatwing, but in this case I have gone more on the pre-pruinescent appearance of the thorax and head, and particularly the shape/profile of the triangular/trapezoidal pale marking at the lower posterior of the synthorax. In Common Flatwings, this is almost always more triangular with a sharp/defined angle at the top, whereas in Powdered Flatwing it is slightly more trapezoidal and with a curved/rounded top (as in this case). If I were to be brutally honest, I should probably have left this as Austroargiolestes sp. It is much easier when the male has its very distinctive thoracic pruinescence! If you'd like to follow up and get other opinions, you could post on iNaturalist and/or FB Australian Dragonflies and Damselflies.

HarveyPerkins wrote:

2 Jan 2023

@KorinneM - let me know if you'd like me to post on iNat or Facebook for you.

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