The ‘Birth’ of a Dragonfly

Two posts in one week?  What have you lucky people done to deserve this.  As you know I have been avidly ‘pond watching’ of late as the dragon and damselflies have been emerging, in the case of the Large Red Damselflies in good numbers.  One of my aims was to capture the moment a dragonfly left it’s watery home of the last two years and ‘transformed’ into a winged beauty.  Well this morning I got my wish…..

The larvae climbs an Iris leaf

After getting a good grip the thorax splits and the emergence begins

Next the head appears

Then the body

Almost there. At this point it took a rest and started pumping up the body to full size

With a deft forward flip and it’s out

Next task get them wings inflated

Ta-dah! A newly minted Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa). The new wings will have the fluids pumped into them after which they will then open to the typical cross position.

This whole process from start to finish took two hours and was fascinating to watch.  I then had to go out.  When I returned a couple of hours later the dragon had flown.  Earlier this week I witnessed a damselfly emerging, in contrast to the dragon it took only fifteen minutes!

Have a great weekend!