Limón Flatwing

Only yesterday did I add the Limón Flatwing (Philogenia expansa) to my Odonate list. On 16 July 2017 at the Braulio Carrillo National Park, San José, Costa Rica, our fearless leader, Dennis Paulson, originally identified this dragonfly as a Costa Rican Flatwing (Philogenia carrillica). I dutifully took these photographs, but, having seen Costa Rican Flatwings near Monteverde earlier in our tour, my images were forgotten in my 16 July computer folder.

The two species are nearly identical and can not be saftely told apart in the field. As far as is known, however, the two do not overlap in range, and the Limón Flatwing has been collected in the national park. According to Dennis, “There are four species of Philogenia in Costa Rica that look exactly alike, males distinguished only by their appendages and females by very slight differences in the prothorax. [A] ... fifth species has a blue thorax.” To further confuse the issue, the Limón Flatwing was initially described from a female specimen. Females have not been seen with males, so one must assume the the local male flatwings are the same species as the females.