When the dragonfly season first starts, I am content to get a record shot of each species, which is to say that I am looking primarily to document the species and am not all that concerned about the quality of the initial images or their artistic merits. After the first excitement dies down, I try to get better and better images and one of the things that I often try to do is to photograph males and females of each species.
How do you tell the gender of a dragonfly? In some dragonfly species, the mature males and females have different colors and are easy to tell apart. However, quite often immature males have the same coloration as the females, so color alone is rarely a reliable marker. I have found that the best way to determine the gender is to look at the tips of the abdomen (the “tail”)—I won’t go into the details of dragonfly anatomy, but suffice it to say that the males and females have different shapes in this area so they can fit together for mating.
Over the last two weeks I have had several encounters with Uhler’s Sundragon dragonflies (Helocordulia uhleri) and was able to get shots of both a male and a female. The dragonfly in the first image is a female. I can tell its gender by the shape of the “terminal appendages” and also by the curved shape of the hind wings where they join the body.
If you look closely at the second image, which is a shot of a male, you can see that the lower portion of the abdomen is slightly enlarged—the abdomen is more uniformly shaped with a female—and the shape of the tip of the abdomen is different. You might also notice that the shape of the hind wings is “indented” where they meet the body, unlike the smooth curves of the female.
With some species, you can find the males and the females in the same area, so it is not hard to get shots of both genders. However, with other species, the females hang out in separate areas and do not mingle with the males until the females decide it is time for mating, which forces me to search a much wider area to photograph males and females.
I apologize if I got a little “geeky” in this posting. I am a little obsessed with dragonflies and am endlessly fascinated by them, so it is easy for me to get a little lost in the details.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Thanks for your “geekiness”. It was just the right amount, as I can see the differences between the male and female and may remember as well! 👍🏽
Thanks, Anne. I was a liberal arts major in college (French language and literature) and do not have a science background. As a result I tend to look at things a bit differently than a scientist. Mostly I like to focus on things that are cool and/or beautiful and then try to share my enthusiasm and curiosity with others. 🙂
As always impressed by your macro work.
Dragonflies are fascinating, the first shot is realy nice.
Thanks, Rudy. It is nice when I can get as clear a background as I did in the first shot, but that is not easy to do with dragonflies like this that perch so close to the ground. 🙂
Feel free to reek of geek. Enjoy those sun dragons Mike. Thanks
Not “geeky” at all! Very interesting facts that I at least didn’t know. I will have to look more closely at my dragonflies now that I know how to sex them.
In many ways it’s like birdwatching. Sometimes I will be able to see the critical features that will help to identify a dragonfly species and a gender, but often I get only partial views or the light is bad and I am forced to made a guess (or to ask an expert). It is even tougher with damselflies, because many species are quite similar at first glance.
Wonderful detail and it’s great to have a few facts too!
Thanks, Liz. As I try to identify the things that I have photographed, I come across all kinds of interesting information and it is always fun to share some of the most interesting tidbits with others.