Migrant Hawker abberation!

[Fourwings]

Have a look at this strange looking lady,


I found her at Priory Water this afternoon, she has the blue eyes and blue abdominal markings of a male and yet is quite clearly a female.
I know it has been quite a year for abberative forms of Butterfly but this is the first time I've come across such a strange colour abberation in a Dragonfly, all thoughts welcome on this one.

Just for comparison this a normal colour form female that I also photographed at the same site this afternoon.

[squishy]

wow, that's quite a nice variation.

I've never seen one like that.

[Ollie]

Very interesting Steve. Not something I've seen before. I realise it would not be possible to find out but I do wonder if she would be capable of mating or would even have the inclination to do so.

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by Ollie

I realise it would not be possible to find out but I do wonder if she would be capable of mating or would even have the inclination to do so.

Interestingly, there were several males hovering about in the area and despite her very open and obvious perch they were not paying her any attention.
To be honest when I first saw her from a distance I thought it was a male as females do not perch openly very often, the second image of the normal female was taken after she separated from a male and I only two images before she shot off to hide in the willows. It just goes to prove that the behaviour of the abberative form was very untypical and odd.

Hopefully there will be somewhere that may be able to answer my questions on this, the main one now has to be, can you get Andromorphic female Dragonflies??

[Dogghound]

Potentially could well be Andromorphism. The fact it has little appeal to males and looks like a male supports this claim. Like alot of insects little amounts of study have been put into this sort of characteristic.

[Wild-Woman]

Very interesting specimen Steve. I should think you did a bit of a double take on that one. The BDS might like a look?

[wint]

Originally Posted by Fourwings

Hopefully there will be somewhere that may be able to answer my questions on this, the main one now has to be, can you get Andromorphic female Dragonflies??

In Corbet (Dragonflies - Behaviour and Ecology of Odonata) there is the following statement (p277 for those who've got the book)

"...polychromatism exists inseveral families and genera, and predominantly in the female, in which the most prevalent, and usually the only, condition is the presence of an andochromatype (formerly called a homeomorph) as well as the normal gynochromotype (heteromorph). In many genera chromatypes segregate clearly phenotypically but in others (e.g., Aeshna, see Walker 1958:47) there often exists an almost continuous series of intermediates between unequivocal androchromatypes at one end and unequivocal gynochromatypes at the other...."

It says that the andochromatype females can result from exposure of recently emerged adults to high temperature - probably not a likely cause unless the midlands has had better weather

Never seen one like this - a good example for people to not rely on colour to ID.

[Keith Talbot]

Blimey! theres alot of big words in there

Very interesting tho