My thanks go to Mr Ian Rocoto from http://odonata-malaysia.blogspot.com/ for his guiding hand and experienced eye.
Thanks also to Steve Covey who writes http://wiltshire-dragonfly-news.blogspot.com/ for the common name for Ceriagrion cerinorubellum
Singapore Botanic Gardens have some great habitat for dragonflies and in the limited time between the birding and before the onset of rain, I indulged myself.
There is a post on http://www.redgannet.blogspot.com/ if you need the logistics, or if you want to check out the birdies.
I found some old favourites as well as some new ones.Identification is still taking time. I am used to field guides for birds which are detailed in the extreme. The guides for odonata simply do not cut the mustard in comparison.
Like birds, damselflies and dragonflies have sexual differences and age characteristics with regional variations too, not forgetting the larval stage. Most guides in this field show the male only with sketchy detail for differentiating between similar species. Websites are proving to be my best source of information, but they are limited by mostly being photographic, which cannot compete with detailed drawings that accentuate characteristics. I am currently working with my guide to Hong Kong, but managed to augment that with a small volume from the gardens gift shop.
Just inside the gate on Napier Road is the Marsh Garden. It is a small, shallow, still body of water with some emergent water plants and some weed. Around it are decorative plantings. At 07.00 when the sun began to rise, there were odonata already in position, waiting. The temperature only dropped to 28C last night so they should not take long to warm up.
Neurothemis fluctuans, male.
Without an adequate guide, I took the first odes to be Russet Perchers, Neurothemis fulvia. Actually, they were Neurothemis fluctuans. I could not find a common name for them.
Neurothemis fluctuans, young male
Neurothemis fluctuans, male
In an area given over to formal brick-built ponds with water lilies, some damselflies were stirring. 
On an unopened flower bud was a Pseudagrion microcephalum and on some floating lily leaves was an Common Bluetail, Ischnura senegalensis.
I planned to return there later in the day to see if any would pose on an open flower.
Crimson Dropwing Trithemis aurora female
On Symphony Lake, the most obvious dragonflies were the Crimson Dropwing, Trithemis aurora. 
An Ictinogomphus decoratus, sat way out over the water on a horse-tail rush.
By the time I returned to the brick ponds, the Crimson Dropwings had arrived. They seemed to prefer the brick edges of the ponds as perches. On the lake, they had been using bank-side vegetation to sit out. 
As I had hoped, there were some Blue Dashers, Brachydiplex chalybea, perched on the open lilies making a beautiful picture.
I had promised myself a second look at the Marsh Garden before the rain set in. I was distracted on the way there by a male Rhodothemis rufa.
I only had a very short time left, but managed a quick look at a medium-sized libellullid. 
I have named him Orthetrum testaceum, on advice from Ian. If I had known, I would have been looking for a tuft of setae on S2.
The other problem with odonata field guides is that they are usually incomplete. How can I definitively make an identification when I do not have the complete set to make a proper comparison?
I made a second visit to the gardens the next morning and spent most of my time in the Marsh Garden, but also managed to get to the Eco Pond 
which accounted for the Blue Percher, Diplacodes trivialis and the Green Skimmer, Orthetrum Sabina.
I had not impressed myself with my photography on the first day and wanted to return to see if I could do better. 
I found that for macro photography like this and when using the big lens at full throttle, locking the mirror up avoids the vibrations that have been plaguing me up ‘til now.
In the Marsh Garden, to my delight, I found a couple of new zygoptera. 
The first was Ceriagrion cerinorubellum. What a shame that such a beauty does not have a common name. Stop press. A comment comes from Steve Covey of http://wiltshire-dragonfly-news.blogspot.com/ the common name is Orange-tailed Marsh Dart 
Orange-tailed Midget Agriocnemis femina young male
Superficially similar, but much smaller was the Orange-tailed Midget, Agriocnemis femina 
Orange-tailed Midget Agriocnemis femina mature male.
A mature male and young male of this species were chasing each other through the bank-side rushes.
I warmed to the task of photographing the myriads of Neurothemis, still under the misapprehension that they were the fulvia sp. Only when I managed to find “A pocket guide Dragonflies of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore” by A.G. Orr, did I notice that there were more Neurothemi than I had realised. By now it was raining and I had to return home that evening, so I am now poring over the photos trying to get good ID. I needed someone better aquainted with Singaporean odonata than I am to confirm their identities. To that end Ian Rocoto kindly perused the post and made suggestions that I am pleased to adopt.
Odonata species; 11
Common Bluetail Ischnura sengalensis 1, Pseudagrion microcephalum 1, Orange-tailed Marsh Dart Ceriagrion cerinorubellum 2, Orange-tailed Midget Agriocnemis femina 2.
Ictinogomphus decoratus 3, Blue Percher, Diplacodes trivialis 1, Green Skimmer, Orthetrum Sabina 2, Crimson Dropwing Trithemis aurora 30, Rhodothemis rufa 8, Orthetrum testaceum 2, Neurothemis fluctuans 20
It was a Scarlet Skimmer, Crocothemis servilia. This dragonfly has appeared in the blog before and today takes the crown for the most widespread ode that this blogger has seen. First seen in Singapore, it has subsequently been found in Hong Kong, where it goes by the name of Crimson Darter, and in India during October. 
Without any evidence to the contrary, I am assuming this to be the female.
Another seemingly abundant species, which also fails to make it into the "Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies", which I am currently using as my reference field-guide.
The Blue Dasher was the original holder of the distribution title having been seen from Toronto, Canada to Califonia. 
I can now reveal that it is a 
I believe it to be a 
It was about the right size and the abdomen is suggestive of amberwing. The eyes and the yellow marks on the thorax fit the descriptions of the amberwing. The wings however made me doubt the accuracy of my assumptions. The creature left it's wings to flutter in the light breeze in the same way that I had seen the Halloween Pennant doing on my previous visit. The wings were also much more heavily marked than I have seen in any photos or illustrations. There were both Eastern Amberwings and Halloween Pennants in the vicinity to compare size and flutteriness with. I see that the amberwings sometimes imitate wasps, but the fluttering did not seem reminiscent of any wasp that I had seen before. So I find myself unsatisfied with Eastern Amberwing. Perhaps there is a tiny pennant that I have not found in my research yet. All thoughts are welcome.
A dragonfly was perched on an aloe-type plant. I suspect it was a female or juvenile of the darker, redder ode below. 
They both exhibit similar blotches at the bases of the wings.
This particular species was very common in this locale with hundreds of them in the meadows and the wet margins of the lake. It is very reminiscent of a Crimson Darter, Cocothemis servilia, but I have nothing else to compare it to. It is duller than previous encounters with C.s.
I had ordered a book that I hoped would enable me to identify some of the common odonata of India. It arrived while I was away, but on opening it on my return, I found it to be quite useless. The illustrations were childlike and photos were poorly printed. So I find myself throwing the identifications open to anyone who can help.
In terms of quantity it was dramatically outnumbered by all the others today.
It is a very widespread dragonfly that is distributed from Europe to Australia and all points between, taking in Russia and North Africa on the way.
The skimmer was very approachable and allowed me to get close to him with the 50mm macro lens.
A similar-looking dark dragonfly could be related. It’s general appearance seems very close to the percher’s, but we all know how similar some other forms of odonata are, so I am not taking anything for granted. 
Both of them seemed to be weak fliers, resting after short forays.
A pair of ponds in the northeast sector of the park should have been very productive at the right time of day, but I passed through too early. They would be worth a look when the sun is higher on my next visit.
Grenadier Lake was teeming with Blue Dashers, which are fast becoming the most widespread odonata for this observer so far. 
On this occasion, I saw that the wings were more shaded than I had previously noted. The specimens that I had observed in LAX, MIA and PHX had been much cleaner of wing.
These belonged to the Eastern Meadowhawk.
Here I met the female Eastern Meadowhawk. Thinking I had a new species, I was determined to get a good photo and she proved to be very obliging. She had caught and was eating a small, blue fly It was at this point that I checked my “remaining frames” counter and saw that it had hardly changed. I had set the definition very low last week and had not changed it back. All of the pictures taken this week have been at 1mb or less. Changing the resolution back to high, the pictures were over 4mb.
The definition is compromised when put onto the blog, so the difference would only be obvious when the subject is heavily cropped, but it is very noticeable on the monitor with the full size picture.
A Green Darner settled into the grass for a close-up. A saddlebags flew over in silhouette but I am not yet proficient enough to tell which.
This one could be a Familiar Bluet, but I am going to need more practice identifying before I claim him in red. 
The rocks created a semi-dam across part of the stream and allowed me to get out into the middle of the river and look back towards the bank. Two forms of what I assumed must be pennants of some sort were dog-fighting with each other over the shallow bend in the stream. 
One was the male of the Common Whitetail. They would settle from time to time, but at a distance, so I had to get my feet wet and muddy again to get close enough for a picture.
This one is a 
On some floating mats of weed, were a couple of different zygoptera. They were very common in the muddy bay, laying eggs among the weeds. 
I now know that one of the damselflies was an 
It proved to be a 
There is a lot of controversy and confusion about red meadowhawks. A number of species are very similar and cannot safely be separated in the field.
So unless anyone can tell from this photo, it will remain a mystery.
but sadly, so do Green Herons. 
Eastern Amberwings and Blue Dashers were very common. Soft floating weed provided ovipositing opportunities and even a feather sufficed as a perch in the absence of anything else at the formal end of the lake.
There is a confusing set of bluets that ought to be examined in the hand for definitive identification. I think that this is possibly a Familiar Bluet, but since it has such close look-alikes, this may prove a hasty assumption.