Fast Flyer Continued

The male Broad-bodied libelula    Libelula Depressa

The day after I saw the female Libellula depressa, a male appeared, and as the female was still there, quite soon after the conjoined pair mated in mid air. Although I tried without success to follow them around, it was too difficult to photograph the act.  I would not have thought it possible for them to mate whilst flying, ... but perhaps this is not as unusual as it seemed!!


 

The male waited around for a few days, but the female left as soon as the sexual act was consumated, and did not return.

 

"Still waiting"

 

As they are around from May to August, there is still a chance I'll see more of these small dragonflies this year, ...hope so!.


  

In my excitement about seeing the Hoopoe, I forgot about posting this follow-up to the female Libellula depressa, so here it is.

Fast Flyer

The female Broad-bodied libélula     Libellula depressa  

The young male also looks like this female but the mature male is blue. I know this one is a female because I saw it mating.Although the female  is classified as being brown, she was decidedly more yellow looking than brown, with lighter yellow markings down sides of her abdomen. 

This fast flying darter alighted on a garden marker, which is near the fish pond especially for this purpose. It attracts all kinds of dragonflies to it's warm wooden surface. She seemed to be waiting ( perhaps for a mate) and thankfully  a male  appeared the next day. As I took too many photos for one post, I will show you the male of the species on my next post.

 

 She left the marker only a few times to hunt, but always returned to the same place. She looked in my direction several times, but my close proximity didn't seem to bother her. I think she had other things on her mind!:))


 

Although I didn't noticed she may even have started her existence in the pond, as and they do prefere to breed in garden ponds or similar bodies of water.


 

Both the male and the female have very broad abdómens, and all wings are brown at the base.

 

The wing span is (76mm) and the length is 45 mm. It's not a large dragonfly but it's a pretty little thing, especially when  the wings shimmer in the bright sunlight.

 

An Awesome Ruler

The Emperor Dragonfly   Anax imperator
 

 

An easily identified dragonfly by the blue abdomen with black line. It's the largest European dragonfly, and I was lucky to actually get a still shot, as it is very fast flying, and it led me a merry dance as I followed it around my garden:) It finally came to rest on top of the climbers on the pátio.

Beautiful Demoiselle 2

The Female Beautiful Demoiselle    Camopteryx virgo 

 

Thank you all so much for all your generous comments whilst I was away on vacation. It was a restful holiday and I will be showing you some of the photos I took, but for the moment want to show you a few dragonflies that came to my garden before I left. Will be catching up with all your blogs as soon as possible:) The Beautiful Demoiselle is a European damselfly.They measure 30 to 40mm in lengh. The females are a metalic greenish-bronze with brown tinted wings, each with a white stigma. They can be seen flying and resting by fast to medium flowing streams.The females lay up to 300 eggs at a time on submerged vegetation.

Beautiful Demoiselle

The Male Beautiful Demoiselle   Camopteryx virgo 

 

Both male and female visited my garden last week. Today I would like to show you the beautiful male Camopteryx virgo.

Green Demoiselle

The Beautiful Demoiselle   Calopteryx virgo  The adult female

A Hawker

The Female Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly
Orthetrum coerulescens

The Water Babes

The Nymph of the Damselfly
At the beginning of summer the nymph leaves the water to begin it's metamorphasis.

The nymth climbs up a reed, the skin splits down it's back and the Damselfly emerges.
I have never been fortunate enough to actually witness this transformation,but thought I
would show the nymth-.cuticle, which eventually dries in the sun and falls in the water.

Dainty Demoiselles

Male Damselfly Arigon Virgo

Female Damselfly-Agrion Virgo