After mating, many male damselflies hold on to the female as she deposits eggs in order to keep any rival males from interfering with the process. The male grasps the head of the female with the terminal appendages of his abdomen in the “tandem” position and the two linked damselflies move about from spot to spot as the female inserts eggs into floating vegetation.
Last Friday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge I managed to capture this image of a Slender Bluet (Enallagma traviatum) couple as the female arched her body, made a little slit in the vegetation and inserted eggs, a process known as “ovipositing.”
I am not absolutely certain I have correctly identified the damselfly species—there are a lot of bluet species—but I have made my call primarily on the basis of the markings on the abdomens of the male and the female. I intend to post this shot in a dragonfly/damselfly forum on Facebook and will update this posting if one of the experts in the group corrects my initial identification.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 