Dragonfly egg development.

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

A special occasion, I feel fairly certain that what is on my ordinary mossy brick at the pond edge are the eggs of the Southern Hawker, and possibly also the Common Darter. The brick was placed there for this purpose!

The beginning of the story is here on a thread I started about a tiny wasp, there is two pages.

Wasp 0.5mm primitive?

I have had the Common darter recently mating on 30th September over my garden. I have also seen the Southern Hawker laying eggs on more than one occasion.

Today I have found more eggs, some on the pond liner at the other end where the Southern Hawker was also seen laying.

The most exciting thing is what I found today, a developing 'baby' inside an egg which is a little over 2mm long. Please read the comments under each pic which explains each one, as there is too much to explain again here.

I have 10 pics uploaded so will put them on two posts.

Janet

[JRsbugs]

The rest..

[bonitin]

It's really fascinating to witness the development of the Dragon fly eggs!! Thanks for sharing! The baby is irresistible!!

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by bonitin

It's really fascinating to witness the development of the Dragon fly eggs!! Thanks for sharing! The baby is irresistible!!

I agree totally with you bonitin, and I feel very priveleged to be witnessing this!

Yes the baby would melt anyone's heart, but I feel worried about it's survival! Of course there is a possibilty it could be something else, but I have only seen a dragonfly laying eggs there and I can't think what else it could be. The egg size fits from the research I have done, but I haven't seen anything at the baby stage like this!

To see it without a camera you wouldn't even know it was a live thing, so small it looks like a tiny piece of vegetation.

I have been looking closer at it, the egg has all but altered into the baby with only some jelly-like sides, which appear to be the pre-formed wings. I'm sure I can see an antenna too, just at the inside of the eye but do the larva have antenna? Lol! Though the eyes do have a red top full of cells, with a division near the bottom which is paler and that's what the Common Darter has. This is going to be very interesting if we hopefully get to see more...

[JRsbugs]

I found a pic of what was said to be almost certainly a Common darter nymph, it has antennae!

Neil - pond dipping - Common darter dragonfly nymph and great diving beetle larva

The Common Darter also develops into an adult in one year according to gardensafari. I have had them in August so my guess is the baby could be a Common Darter.

Picture page about the Common Darter

[bonitin]

I'm anxious to see its further development! Hopefully it will make it as there must be many dangers lurking about!
Please keep us informed!

[JRsbugs]

I have looked this morning and only taken one pic, I'm now quite used to holding the camera still for focusing but I'm going blue in the face! There was obvious large water droplets around it's 'wings' but that must be normal and maybe necessary for their development. The 'egg sac' part is developing into an abdomen, with the yellow circular bit being pushed to the outer edge, the middle is darker and I can see some abdominal sections!

I read some very interesting facts on a review for a book on dragonflies, would this be the 'prolarva' stage, I would have thought the 'prelarva'.

Much modern research has concentrated on the egg phase, and it is summarised here, together with an assessment of the significance of the prolarva, a brief 'stadium' in the life of most dragonflies.

Also by this statement you can see how they can survive all types of weather:

More fascinating facts emerge - larvae have survived freezing into blocks of ice, for instance, and being dried out and rehydrated.

H a b i t a t - Daily wildlife and environment news from the British Isles

The book sounds like a good investment, a shame about the high price though!

I found a pic of a Common Darter larva which has hairs around the edges so it could be quite a young one.

CJN Images Gardening photography/Pond Life/Dragonflies and Damselflies/Common Darter Larvae

I found the 'prolarva' stage is after the egg hatches, but it says this stage is very short, in some cases less than a minute! A survival technique.

A dazzle of dragonflies - Google Books

And here is a scetch of a prolarva, which is more advanced than my little baby!

The European Odonates(Dragonflies and Damselflies)

Sorry about all the links, but it is necessary to find out and to illustrate these points.

[bonitin]

More fascinating facts emerge - larvae have survived freezing into blocks of ice, for instance, and being dried out and rehydrated.

I have been worried about that with winter approaching specially for the Southern Hawker's eggs that take much longer to hatch, (only in Spring according to Wikipedia), but there was no need for that!

Thanks for the links, very interesting! you are amazing in finding exactly the right information!

I would love to see your picture of today...

[Bruce Williams]

Absolutely fascinating thread and photos. Thanks for posting Janet, I'll keep my fingers crossed for baby .

Bruce

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by bonitin

I have been worried about that with winter approaching specially for the Southern Hawker's eggs that take much longer to hatch, (only in Spring according to Wikipedia), but there was no need for that!

Thanks for the links, very interesting! you are amazing in finding exactly the right information!

I would love to see your picture of today...

The correct search terms amazingly bring up the sites I needed, such as 'dragonfly egg development' and 'dragonfly prolarva'

I have to download pics from today, 75 of them and it was mostly dull but as usual I found a few things to take pics of, lol.