Damsel fly has underwater adventure..

Airehead · #1 (**permalink**) 11-07-2006, 03:13 PM

Went fishing on the Swale today. Caught nothing, watched damsels instead. Hundreds of blue ones with black patch wings chasing the green females (Calopteryx splendens). Saw some mating - their bodies made a perfect heart shape. Isn't that nice?
I was surprised by the female which landed on the floating tops of some weed. I saw it land and assumed it wa going to lay eggs just under the surface. A greedy male jumped on it immediately and the female sank below the surface. He's drowned her, I thought - but then I realised that the female was crawling down the submerged stems of the plant. The last time I saw it, it was about 10" down and still going.

Does anyone know if this is normal behaviour?

A little later I watched a different species, the blue-tailed one, dipping her tail in the water in several spots.

Wild-Woman · #2 (**permalink**) 11-07-2006, 04:03 PM

Ive read that when the dragonfly (the female) submerges like this, it is to prevent other males mating with her. Clever really.ww

Tiggrx · #3 (**permalink**) 11-07-2006, 04:19 PM

Not sure if it explains what this dragonfly was doing...

Wild-Woman · #4 (**permalink**) 11-07-2006, 05:08 PM

Easy Tiggrx-having a wash of course.

harasseddad · #5 (**permalink**) 13-07-2006, 01:24 PM

Yep, many female damselflies submerge to lay eggs. i think the record is 20 minutes underwater. it is believed they survive by trapping air bubbles in the hair on the body. The males often hold on - again possibly to help pull them up again off the surface, or simply to prevent other males from mating.

bugbotherer · #6 (**permalink**) 13-07-2006, 04:40 PM

I've certainly seen the red-eyed damsels performing this behaviour
bugbotherer

troutmask · #7 (**permalink**) 26-07-2006, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airehead

Went fishing on the Swale today. Caught nothing, watched damsels instead. Hundreds of blue ones with black patch wings chasing the green females (Calopteryx splendens). Saw some mating - their bodies made a perfect heart shape. Isn't that nice?
I was surprised by the female which landed on the floating tops of some weed. I saw it land and assumed it wa going to lay eggs just under the surface. A greedy male jumped on it immediately and the female sank below the surface. He's drowned her, I thought - but then I realised that the female was crawling down the submerged stems of the plant. The last time I saw it, it was about 10" down and still going.

Does anyone know if this is normal behaviour?

A little later I watched a different species, the blue-tailed one, dipping her tail in the water in several spots.

I don't know if it is normal behaviour, but I have recently took a set of photos of this hapenning. They can be viewed here

Mr Mag00 · #8 (**permalink**) 26-07-2006, 10:50 PM

great website, great photos. how do you do the change between photos,a great effect,want to pinch it!!!!!

Kev Lewis · #9 (**permalink**) 26-07-2006, 11:00 PM

Nice images troutmask. For info: the Nature link on your homepage is dead.

troutmask · #10 (**permalink**) 26-07-2006, 11:10 PM

Thanks, the web site is being rebuilt at present so non of the Gallery links are active.
The transitions for the photos of the damselflies are made using action script in Flash. The actual code is freely downloadable from the Adobe website (search for flash albums in the Photoshop updates). You can use the Flash albums supplied by Adobe directly in Photoshop to make albums or if you have a copy of Flash you can make changes to use them within your own site.