I spotted a female Common Green Darner dragonfly (Anax junius) as she was ovipositing while her male partner held onto her last Saturday at the edge of the small pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. Common Green Darners are large dragonflies—about 3 inches (76 mm) in length—so it was relatively easy to track the pair as they moved about placing eggs in various patches of vegetation in the water.
After mating takes place, the males of some species of dragonflies disappear. In other species, the male stays nearby, guarding the female and fending off other males that might remove the initial suitor’s sperm and replace it with their own. Some species, like this Common Green Darner, remain attached to the female in a position known as “tandem.” while egg-laying takes place. The female Common Green Darner submerges her abdomen and lays her eggs in or on the aquatic vegetation, as you can see in these images. If you look really closely at the first image, you can see what I believe is the dragonfly’s curved ovipositor that she uses to make a little slit into the vegetation in which to place the eggs.
According to an article on Animal Diversity Web, there are two different lifecycles for Common Green Darners, one for the dragonflies that have migrated northward and one for the resident population. “Migratory adults mate and oviposit in June. Unlike resident populations, nymphal development for migrant offspring takes only 3 to 5 months, and they do not overwinter. They emerge as tenerals typically around late-August and September. They often begin their migration as tenerals, feeding along the way and developing into adults.” The timing of the activity that I observed suggests that these could be migrant Common Green Darners.
“For residents in the north, the adults mate and oviposit in late July to August. The resulting offspring hatch and develop to mid-instars and then overwinter when temperatures drop. Total nymphal development time can take 11 to 12 months for residents, as the nymphs finish development when temperatures warm in the spring and then emerge as adults in the following June and July.”
I highly recommend the article that I referenced, which has lots more fascinating information about this colorful dragonfly species.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Pretty amazing
Wow! Beautiful photos and a fantastic write up! Thanks for sharing all that info. It was very informative and interesting.
Thanks. A lot of the time my photos as self-explanatory, but in this case I thought it would be particularly useful to explain to viewers what was going on. 🙂
Fabulous!
Thanks, Liz. It is always fun to capture these kinds of actions shots. 🙂