| Latin Name | Observation Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Onychargia atrocyana | Sep 15, 2026 | Natore, Bangladesh |
While exploring the surrounding greenery in the afternoon, a beautiful black-colored damselfly sitting on a tree leaf caught my eye. It was sitting very calmly on the leaf. Although I did not have an expensive camera, I took out my smartphone and took a few macro shots of it from close up. The damselfly velvety dark black body and light blue ring-like spots on its abdomen looked truly unique. In common language or English, it is called 'Black marsh dart' or 'Marsh dancer'. There is some difference in color between the male and female damselfly; the female and young damselfly have light yellow spots on their bodies, which are covered in dark black in the adult male damselfly.
Scientific name:
The specific scientific name of this damselfly is Onychargia atrocyana. In 1865, the scientist Selys first classified it scientifically.
Family and Genus:
According to the scientific classification of biology, it is a member of the Platycnemididae family, which is included in the Odonata class of the Arthropoda order. Its genus or genus name in the scientific world is Onychargia.
Habitat and habitat:
In terms of geographical distribution, they can be found in various countries of South and Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand and Malaysia. They mainly prefer to live on the plants and leaves around the wetlands, ponds, pools and damp and wet environments inside the forests.
Food:
Like other predatory insects, they are completely carnivorous in nature. They meet their food needs by hunting harmful mosquitoes, small flies and other small flying insects while flying or sitting on the leaves of trees.
Reproduction:
Their reproduction process is completely dependent on water bodies. During the breeding season, female damselfly lay their eggs on aquatic plants in calm water. After the eggs hatch and the nymphs or young emerge, they grow up in the water by eating small aquatic insects and after changing their shells several times, they emerge on land as full-fledged damselfly.
Benefits:
They play a great role in maintaining the natural balance. They help to keep the environment clean naturally by hunting and eating a large number of harmful mosquitoes and small flying insects that are harmful to crops every day.
Disadvantages:
They do not have any harmful effects on humans, the environment or plants. They are a completely harmless insect.
I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.
(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
| Camera Used | Samsung SM-G973F |
|---|---|
| F-Stop | F2.4 |
| ISO speed | ISO |
| Focal length | 26mm |
| Flash | No |
| Editing app | Lightroom |
| Photography | (Onychargia atrocyana) |
| Photographer |  @mshbd |
| Location | Natore, Bangladesh |
| Link to original community |
|---|
| https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/400752716 |
| Latitude | Longitude | Map Link |
|---|---|---|
| 24.3360 | 89.1134 | https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/24.3360/89.1134 |