Island Of The Blue Damselflies About To Get Crowded
by Byron Varvarigos
Title
Island Of The Blue Damselflies About To Get Crowded
Artist
Byron Varvarigos
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This is a cropped photo of blue damselflies courting, with three on a water lily bud (one is behind the bud, tail and wings partially visible) and one in flight approaching quickly with intent to land. Blue is rather a misnomer, since the females are sometimes golden brown. At this point I'd like to refer you to a wonderful short BBC video on Youtube, "The Blue Damselfly", which goes into all sorts of info about these beautiful little wonders, including their amazingly complex mating behavior. To mate, the male must first establish a territory by fighting off other males. Then, if a female enters the territory, he must impress her by showing off his wings. If she shows interest she'll point her abdomen slightly downwards, and then the male grasps her thorax with special appendages at the tip of his abdomen. If the female senses a good fit, she'll extend her abdomen to the male's thorax, at which point copulation begins. Then the male flies down to the stream to show the female good spots for laying her eggs, normally on floating vegetation. More information in description of my photo "damselfly love is heart-shaped and bubbly" which shows the actual mating position.
Uploaded
August 16th, 2013
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Viewed 149 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/29/2024 at 6:48 AM
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Comments (6)
PAMELA Smale Williams
What a fantastic capture Byron! Inventive title. Sunlight on the flower bud is striking. V/Pamela