Damselflies!

[holyschist]

It's pretty much the tail end of the dragonfly and damselfly season here in Colorado, but I'm glad I thought to seriously check the creek behind my apartment. There are a bunch of dragonflies--meadowhawks, darners, and probably some skimmers--that I haven't been able to get a good look at, much less photographs of, but the Great Spreadwings (Archilestes grandis) are very cooperative. I'm still getting the hang of photographing damselflies (their eyes are more difficult to focus on than big dragonfly eyes), and still wishing I had a macro lens, but until then, at least the Great Spreadwing is pretty big and easy to photograph with a long lens.

Here's a male:



Five more photos at my journal, including females and possibly an immature male.

I really need to learn to net and handle odonates so I can identify them better--and take pictures of some of the trickier species.

Comments

[solitarywalker]

I was wondering how you could tell their genders... thanks for the picture and explanation (in your journal).

[holyschist]

In general with both dragonflies and damselflies, males have claspers, females have ovipositors. However, it's not always easy to see at a glance (at least for me), and you also get "male-like females" a certain percentage of the time in many species, which can be really tricky. And tenerals/immatures, which lack full adult coloring.

A lot of odonate species are sexually dimorphic (often dramatically so--pretty much any time I'm looking for dragonflies, I divide by two the number of types I see to estimate species because males and females often look like different species). Most dull brown damselflies are females, and it's not always easy to tell females of different species apart even if you catch them and use a hand lens.

(There are several other species of damselflies that look almost exactly like the Great Spreadwing, which I was eventually able to eliminate for various reasons.)

I am still learning! They are kind of challenging little creatures.

[aviekokyre]

Wow... it's like he's posing and staring right at the camera, and I love how the camera catches the details in their wings.

[holyschist]

A lot of odonates are remarkably cooperative (and fun) photography subjects! I've been able to stick a point-and-shoot right in the faces of some of the calmer species.

I love their fierce little faces. :-)

[ex_mythical552]

He really does look like he's posing, that's amazing! Wonderful shots.

[holyschist]

Thank you!