A few months ago while staying at Cardamom County, I spent a morning with a wonderful character named Jain – a tribal man with an avid interest in insects and arachnids, working as a guide in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, and incidentally, a friend and student of Mr. Vijaykumar Thondaman‘s. Both armed with cameras, Jain and I entered the reserve just after dawn, and spent the best part of the morning hunting dragonflies and damselflies across streams and fields, ponds and gullies.

I posted about several of the species encountered, of which there were many. One of the species new to me was the Trumpet Tail – Acisoma panorpoides. Although I only took pictures I truly loved of the female, I did see the male, and was quite astounded by the species’ tininess. 

On a recent visit to a villa under development by Raxa Collective in Panangad, I rediscovered the species, although this time there were more males visible than females. After a good amount of determined hunting (again, through gravel and spines), I was finally able to get a decent shot of a male Trumpet Tail, munching away on some unfortunate insect.