Orange-tailed Marsh Dart

This female Orange-tailed Marsh Dart (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) damselfly was sitting in my garden amidst undergrowth. I used Canon EOS 5D Mark III with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM illuminated by Canon MT-24EX macro twin light flash to capture this beauty. This damsel was perched in midst of a crowded bush. Since the background was too cluttered for the subject to stand out, I had to widen my aperture to make the background vanish. Wider aperture with its shallow depth of field created its own problem as the damsel fly was not entirely in focus. Finally I found a satisfactory balance in f/6.3 aperture which gave me an adequate coverage of subject, along with a better blur of the background.

Orange-tailed Marsh Dart is a species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It’s commonly known as orange-tailed marsh dart or bi-coloured damsel. This is the quite a common and beautiful species of damselfly found particularly around ponds, drains, canal, open streams, etc. Orange-tailed Marsh Dart rest on dry twigs and vegetation over water. It is relatively big damselfly in size. It attacks and feed on other species of smaller damselflies. Its bluish green head and orange base and the tip of the abdomen is quite distinctive and cannot be mistaken for other species. The female has a similar appearance, however, the red abdominal segments 7-10 is much duller. It is quite to approachable and getting a close-up shot is fairly easy.

This species can be found in Asia: Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. They are commonly found on the banks of ponds, rivers and canals sitting on dry twigs and vegetation over water. They breed in marshy banks of rivers, canals and ponds. The orange-tailed marsh dart is active from October to January.