Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘mating damselflies’

Mating damselflies

Posted in Autumn, damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 17, 2025| 3 Comments »

During my visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last week I noted that some species of damselflies were still active, notably Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum). Several couples were busily engaged in activities to ensure the perpetuation of their species.

The damselflies in the photo below were in the “tandem” position in which the male continues to clasp the head of the female. Often this position is assumed after the pair has mated and the male holds on while the female deposits the fertilized eggs. I think that may be what was going on when I captured the image, although it is possible that the pair was simply resting before flying to the actual spot where the eggs will be deposited.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

More mating damselflies

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2023| 8 Comments »

Dragonflies and damselflies have rather limited lifespans after they emerge from the water and are transformed from aquatic nymphs into aerial acrobats. One of their biological imperatives is to perpetuate their species, so it is not unusual to see mating activity during this time of the year that is primetime for dragonflies and damselflies.

On a trip earlier this month to Occoquan Regional Park, I spotted this pair of Ebony Jewelwing damselflies (Calopteryx maculata) in their distinctive sidewards-heart mating position. I am really happy with this image because I was able to use my shooting angle and camera settings to keep the bodies of both damselflies in focus and achieve a blurry background that allows a viewer to focus on the damselflies without any visual distractions.

In case you are curious, the damselfly to the left is the female and the one with the shiny green body is the male. You can tell the genders from the mating position and from the little white patch on the wings that is present on female Ebony Jewelwings and not on the completely dark wings of the males

 

Ebony Jewelwing

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

No privacy

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2021| 14 Comments »

It is hard to get privacy for some summer loving and rivals may try to interfere when you are a damselfly. That appeared to be the case on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge for this couple of Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) that I spotted in flagrante delicto.

Feeling a little bit like a voyeur, I was focusing on the couple when I was unexpectedly photobombed by a second male Big Bluet. As I noted yesterday, it is challenging to capture images of a flying dragonfly and it is even harder to get an in-flight shot of a damselfly. In this case it was a matter of luck and quick reactions, rather than skill, that allowed me to get the photo of the incoming damselfly.

The couple changed their position a bit, but were undeterred by the intruder.  I was happy to capture the sidewards-heart shape that is typical of mating damselflies and even more thrilled with the way that the colorful background turned out in a preview of fall colors.

big bluet

big bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

Read Full Post »

Two silhouettes on a shade

Posted in Art, damselfly, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2020| 32 Comments »

Some folks are a bit shocked when I post photos of mating insects, so here is a more discreet look at a damselfly couple in tandem that I encountered last week at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. Somehow I can’t help but think of the old doo wop song “Silhouettes,” which recounts the story of a man who sees two silhouettes on a shade. He thinks his girlfriend is kissing another guy, only to find out that he is at the wrong house.

I may have heard the original version by The Rays that came out in 1957, but suspect I actually recall the cover version done by Herman’s Hermits that came out in 1965. In case you have never heard the song or are simply feeling nostalgic, here is a link to YouTube for the original version and a link to the cover by Herman’s Hermits.

damselflies

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

May Day Mayhem

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2017| 5 Comments »

These Southern Spreadwing damselflies (Lestes australis) were engaging in a little May Day mayhem this past Monday at Huntley Meadows Park. If I have this figured out right, the female, the one on the right in this image, is depositing her eggs in the vegetation after successfully mating with the male, who is still holding on to her.

Southern Spreadwing

 © Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Choices after mating

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2016| 9 Comments »

When the mating is done, damselflies have to decide where to deposit the eggs. Who decides? In many damselfly species, the male remains attached to the female as she deposits the eggs in vegetation or in the water, so I would assume that it is a joint decision of sorts.

When I observed this pair of dragonflies flying around together this past weekend at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge, I decided to try to track them and see where they chose to land. Would they choose a solitary spot where they could be alone or would they choose to join their friends in a post-mating frenzy at a popular hangout? They chose the former, perhaps because the hangout had reached its maximum capacity.

These may be Slender Bluet damselflies (Enallagma traviatum), although I must confess that I don’t have great confidence in my identification of bluets, which all look pretty much the same to my untrained eye.

damselflies

damselflies

damselflies

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Autumn love

Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2015| 15 Comments »

We usually think of springtime as the season of love, but apparently autumn is also a good season if you are a damselfly. I don’t know what was so special about this one plant sticking out of the water, but mating damselfly couples seemed to be competing for a spot to land and deposit their eggs on it this past Monday at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.

I’m no expert when it comes to identifying damselflies, in part because so many different species have similar patterns of black and blue, but I think these couples, all in the tandem position, may be Big Bluets (Enallagma durum). I’d welcome any corrections or confirmation of my initial identification.

UPDATE:  My local odonate expert, Walter Sanford, weighed in with a correction to my identification—these damselflies are Familiar Bluets (Enallagma civile), not Great Bluets. When it comes to my initial identification, you might say that I blew it.

For those who might be curious about the technical aspects of the photo, I took this with my Canon 50D at 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm lens, which is the equivalent of 960mm when you take into account the crop sensor of my camera. I continue to be pleased with the amount of detail that I can capture with the relatively affordable long lens, even when it’s extended to its maximum length. If you click on the image, you can see even more of those wonderful details.

mating damselflies

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Damselfly Cirque du Soleil

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on August 5, 2014| 10 Comments »

Watching insects is sometimes like watching a Cirque du Soleil production, very colorful and incredibly acrobatic, like these mating damselflies that I photographed recently at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA.

damsel1_mating_blog damsel2_mating_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »

Damselflies mating

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2013| 4 Comments »

Damselflies have such narrow bodies that it’s often hard for me to get my camera to focus on them, but I love to chase after them, hoping to capture some of their beautiful colors. I was happy that I managed to get this shot of mating damselflies with enough detail to see some of the differences in coloration between the male and the female. I don’t dare try to explain the physiology of the mating process—I don’t really understand it and will leave that to the experts.

mating_blog

Click on the photo to see a higher resolution view of it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

Read Full Post »

Mating damselflies

Posted in Bugs, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 28, 2012| 4 Comments »

Damseflies are really small and if they were not brightly colored, they would be difficult to see. However, when there are two of them flying together (really together), they are slightly easier to detect. Anatomically speaking, I am having a little trouble figuring how the mating takes place with the damselflies as pictured below, but suffice it to say that damselflies are more flexible and acrobatic than I had previously thought.

I took these shots this afternoon at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA.  Getting a decent image was a bit of a challenge because I was shooting from a raised boardwalk almost two feet above the water level and the damselflies keep landing on vegetation that was just in the shadows underneath the boardwalk. As a result, my position sometimes resembled that of the lighter-colored damselfly.

Close-up of mating damselflies

Mating damselflies

Acrobatic mating damselflies

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

Read Full Post »