Austroagrion watsoni (Eastern Billabongfly)

Austroagrion watsoni is widespread in Australia, just missing from the far western edge, and also occurs in New Caledonia. With a vernacular name featuring “Billabongfly”, where else could it be?

We found our first example on a visit to the dam in Stanley, near Beechworth, Victoria; it was the immature male without its colour developed and I needed help to know what it was. I have subsequently seen mature males on my three later trips to Australia.

The markings behind the eyes are quite distinctive, having a straight-ish inter-ocular bar with no obvious postocular spots. Care is needed with eh black marks on top of S8 & S9 in that S8 sometimes shows very little black.