Last week I managed to capture a series of images of a hook-up between two Ebony Jewelwing damselflies (Calopteryx maculata). Initially I was focused on a female that was perched on a leaf, but then noticed a male who was circling around her. According to Wikipedia, “Calopteryx males will hover in front of a female with alternating fast and slow wingbeats; if she is receptive she will remain perched, otherwise she will fly off.” This female remained in place, so the male moved in, as you can see in the first three photos.
During mating, the male uses claspers at the tip of his abdomen to grasp the female behind her head tightly enough to resist the attempts by other males to dislodge him, a position sometimes called “tandem.” The male then flexes his abdomen to encourage the female to loop her abdomen round to interlock with him, forming the “wheel’ position,” the sidewards-heart position shown in the final photo.
I suppose that I could leave the description here, but the process that was taking place was so weird and fascinating that I thought I should explain what is going on. In order to keep from getting too graphic, I will borrow some language from Wikipedia.
“Mating in damselflies, as in dragonflies, is a complex, precisely choreographed process involving both indirect insemination and delayed fertilization….When he (the male) is ready to mate, he transfers a packet of sperm from his primary genital opening on segment 9, near the end of his abdomen, to his secondary genitalia on segments 2–3, near the base of his abdomen. The male then grasps the female by the head with the claspers at the end of his abdomen; the structure of the claspers varies between species, and may help to prevent interspecific mating… The female then curls her abdomen downwards and forwards under her body to pick up the sperm from the male’s secondary genitalia, while the male uses his “tail” claspers to grip the female behind the head: this distinctive posture is called the “heart” or “wheel.”
Wow! I think I will leave it at that. Suffice it to say that the process is complicated and the participants have to be incredibly flexible.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
What an amazing set of photos. Thanks for sharing. Looks really nice 😀
Thanks, Paul.
Nicely explained and beautiful illustrated too. Thanks for sharing.
Dragonflies and damselflies have such unusual ways of mating that I figured I need to explain a bit what was going on in the photos. Thanks for your kind words.
Those wings are so interesting! Great shots of these in action…
Thanks. This is the only damselfly species in our area with completely dark wings, which makes them look very different from all of the others.
Hi Michael, I’m the Italian entomologist who, some weeks ago, asked you the permission to reproduce one of these damselflies pictures for a book. Upon your positive answer I did download a couple of pictures, however when the book went to the printer I realized the pictures for download are low resolution. The picture can be seen reasonably, however it lost most of its beauty: would you be so kind to send me a high resolution copy of the last shot of this post? Thank you very much in advance
Let me see if I can find that image and I will send you a higher resolution image as soon as I can.
Cheers,
Mike Powell
Hi Michael, I’m the Italian entomologist who asked you a few weeks ago the permission to use one of your pictures of damselflies for a book. When the draft version of the book went to the printer we realised the pictures for download are low resolution; they can be seen reasonably, however lost most of their beauty. Would you be so kind to send me a high resolution copy of the last picture of this post? Thank you in advance
E-mail has been seen with a higher resolution image. 🙂