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Neurobasis chinensis chinensis

1. male over water
2. male floating on water on wings to demonstrate rate of flow, female hovering around
3. crop of second image
4. male and female (about) in copula
5. resting in tandem post-copula

6. perched male displaying response (upward abdomen curl) to intruding male attempting to usurp

I rode the motorbike around until I saw signs for a waterfall that someone had told me about. As I followed the curves up the mountain farmers and villagers kept stopping me and putting their fingers to their mouths. I didn't get it at first but then I realized they wanted cigarettes because I came from the town. I told them sorry but I didn't have any and kept going. After a while I stopped stopping for them as they tried to flag me down.

When I got to the waterfall, which turned out to be many tiers, there were a few people playing around at the top. Thankfully as I walked up they made their way down. Looking back I may have looked kind of odd carrying a big shoulder bag, wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt when everyone else was in sandals and bikini tops. I didn't have time to flirt--I'm serious about dragonflies.

So I got to the top and sat down and just took a deep breath, stared over the edge of the waterfall and then looked up and saw it run down and change course by the rock in front of it. It looked like I was on a 20-foot wide rock slide, jungle surrounding me on both sides and endless mountains cascading in the distance, bird and insect noises coming in and out the fore of my senses, trading places with the draining humidity.

I snapped out of the lull and--shit this is already too long. I saw two magnificent genera of damselfly, two that I had seen in books and read about and now they were in front of me: Rhinocypha and Neurobasis. I looked around me in shock that i was the only here appreciating these tiny creatures, blue and black with iridescent purple rectangles in the wings; metallic green with dark tips speeding by less than an inch above the water.

The entire trip I made, with absolutely no agenda and no direction was at this point a success. I only lamented that I carried just a 35mm and 100mm lens with me.

The male Neurobasis chinensis chinensis flew in front of the female who was perched on a leaf overhanging the running water, 10 to 15 feet away from the drop. He sparred with a male before driving him away and then he fell backwards on the water with his wings open, showing the female the rate of flow of the water. Before the end he erected himself and flew back toward her. They then mated. I tried to get as close as possible without disturbing them. This is another reason I'm glad no one was up there. As I'm sure some of you know...shooting bugs you end up in weird positions on the ground or propped against trees or rocks.

The whole scene was unbelievable. I hope to return one day and do it a justice. The last photos are of a male infringing on another male's territory. He show's his dissatisfaction with the upward abdomen curl, a sort of odonate middle finger. ;)

The head/humidity and the adrenaline wore me out and many times I retired in the shade and scoured the perimeter so I could shoot and rest at the same time. I saw some other amazing dragonflies (really cool Gomphidae obelisking) that I will post later. Since I got a late start I was also getting hungry.

I packed up, surveyed the landscape in front of me and tried to take it all in, then hopped on the scooter and headed back down the mountain. There was a place that looked like might or might not be a restaurant depending on ability to read Thai. I can't read Thai so I stopped and prepared for another embarrassing/awkward situation.

Whether or not it was a restaurant, the girl brought me food. She was also breastfeeding a baby while we attempted to understand each other via gesture. And one gesture she made before the one symbolizing eating...was the gesture of inhaling a marijuana joint. She also knew the word "weed".

So...all of those people on my way up the mountain had not been asking me for cigarettes after all...everyone was trying to sell me drugs.

[I should have known this actually--Pai is a notorious backpacker town--I only visited because I knew the streets were less crowded than Chiang Mai and I wanted to ride a bike through the mountains.]

I declined and reiterated that I only wanted whatever the food gesture meant.

Thanks if you made it to the end.

The geodata for this one is off--I just used the guesthouse because I couldn't find the waterfall on the map. If I find the name I will update it.