Perfect Timing - _TNY_2292
I was talking bugs with Leon, the ten-year-old son of one of my wife's cousins by the garden pond when we spotted this female blue hawker (Aeshna cyanea), also known as the southern hawker.
This became an excellent talking point as we had just seen and talked about the dragonfly nymphs in the water of the pond and how they live there for several years and when they are ready the crawl out of the water up a reed or similar and then the back of it splits open and the adult emerges.
On the same reed, beneath the dragon here, we could clearly see the remains of the previous stage (it's known as an exuvia - plural: exuviae) which the dragon had just crawled out of to open and dry/harden her wings.
It this point, the colours are still muted, but a short while after this they will darken and become what she will bear for the rest of her lilfe.
She took off just minutes after this, at which point I carefully stepped out into the pond and retrieved the Exuvia for Leon.
Perfect Timing - _TNY_2292
I was talking bugs with Leon, the ten-year-old son of one of my wife's cousins by the garden pond when we spotted this female blue hawker (Aeshna cyanea), also known as the southern hawker.
This became an excellent talking point as we had just seen and talked about the dragonfly nymphs in the water of the pond and how they live there for several years and when they are ready the crawl out of the water up a reed or similar and then the back of it splits open and the adult emerges.
On the same reed, beneath the dragon here, we could clearly see the remains of the previous stage (it's known as an exuvia - plural: exuviae) which the dragon had just crawled out of to open and dry/harden her wings.
It this point, the colours are still muted, but a short while after this they will darken and become what she will bear for the rest of her lilfe.
She took off just minutes after this, at which point I carefully stepped out into the pond and retrieved the Exuvia for Leon.