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°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°               °                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The big damselfly...

The Banded Demoiselle.
[Calopteryx splendens - Odonata---Zygoptera Calopterygidae-] (Caloptéryx éclatant) 

Big zygoptera (45-50mm), even larger than some anisoptera as orthetrum. 

Here the night blue male, with its large rounded wings, with very dark blue bars.

His eyes are milky coffee, a young male.
He loves sunny and not too swift streams. 

The calopteryx are the only dragonflies with coloured wings in France.

The extent of dark bars may vary between regions and individuals. In France the bands are relatively narrow.

Body blue-green or blue.
This is an individual of July in defence position, raised abdomen; we see its blue bars with sharp borders.











[Ph. 150708]

This beautiful male arrived and hung to a leaf.

Latter, examining the series of photos, it appeared, hidden under the leaf, the spider Tetragnatha (?) with long legs, see the left photo top right just under the leaf in the legs of the dragonfly.

Tetragnatha which ten seconds later runs away!

Finally, maybe not the whole spider. It is possible that it lost a leg and that the dragonfly spotted it under its leaf. In any case, it didn't lingered.

And close? At the top, it looks like the leg of the spider in the mandibles of our demoiselle of impressive profile.

The female.

[Uncertainties for this female. Indeed, the female Splendens is not easy to differentiate from the Virgo (Beautiful demoiselle). North of the Loire, as is the case here, we have only these two options.
Normally the wings are green and quite transparent, non brown tinted. Above, on the first picture, they are more in honey tones. But here too there may be variations. And ariations also dues to the background, to light and glare in pictures. If we add that the females can sometimes develop the coloration of males...
Virgo wings are much wider than Splendens's, but it is not obvious to spot, especially in wings folded together like this.
In the photos just above, the wings of the latter are nevertheless very transparent, the wings network is dense; and above at right, it is in tones more green (and not "tobacco" or "smoked" as Virgo is described), with a green costal nervure. We see its clear pseudoptérostigmas well positioned well towards the extremity of the wing.
This is the only observed female. Last but not least, there were only male Splendens around.]

(Ph.210409 Plaine de Sorques)

http://www.blog.libellulesmaizieres.fr/2008/02/22/calopteryx-splendens-ou-calopteryx-virgo/
http://odonates22.chez-alice.fr/zygopteres/calopteryx_eclatant/calopteryx_eclatant.html
http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/calopteryx_splendens.html
http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/caspl.html

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

25 May

Gilt encounter.

.

A small shallow pond in the sunshine, a few tufts of yellow iris on the banks and perched on a leaf, close enough to the water, a golden jewel.

Broad-bodied Chaser [Libellula depressa - Libellulidae -] (Libellule déprimée)
It takes its French name from its abdomen short, broad and flattened.

This young immature female has just hatched and waits for its wings to dry and solidify. 

She went out for some time because its wings are already deployed, transparent and not crumpled. 

It hold them still in alignment with its body and not spread and horizontal as is proper for an Anisoptera.

His larva costume is this grey dress that she abandoned (exuviae). She has just completed its final moult (imaginal moult).
The larvae breathe in the water and in the air by their tracheobranchia. The small white threads that we see here are the tracheae. The skin was split on the back and it came out slowly (too bad, before we arrived).

Its exuviae was a little lower on the next leaf touching teh one in which the dragonfly is perched.

It will graduallyspread its wings.

This medium-size dragonfly is 4-5 cm long. At the base, its fore wings have large bar shaped dark spots, and triangle shaped for the hind wing. Two whitish bands are visible on the thorax.

 

Gradually its wings spread.

30mn later, the wings are horizontal. Voila, it is ready for its dragonfly life but that is another story...

20 minutes later she was still there, but I had to leave before the flight and do not know at what time it flew.
Older, it will lose its beautiful honey colour and will take a yellow-brown hue.

(Ph. Seine et Marne 190509)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

26 May

Blue and gold, dragonfly life..

Next day on the same pond, perched on an overhanging twig over the pond, here in blue, Mr Broad-bodied Chaser.

Well in sight, it waits under the sun, clearly visible to all.

Friends and foes alike.

Blue, all blue. It is a mature male. In the beginning, it is yellow as his immature female.

It covers gradually with a powdery blue film: a yellow stripe is still visible on the side of the abdomen of this one.

The dark spots at the base of the wings and the white markings of the thorax are apparent.
From time to time it does dazzling flights over its pond in pursuit of a rival. A few zigzags, the intruder escorted out, it alights on the same spot, patiently.

Twenty minutes later, I decided to leave it and its hopes alone when a female enters his territory, the male responds instantly and immediately grabs her. We hear the sizzling of the wings, the noise characteristic when large dragonflies wings touch in flight.

Mating takes place immediately in flight. The picture is poor, but the flight is fast and difficult to follow. We distinguish the legs of the female which holds the male.

Mating is brief and the female will lay eggs immediately.

It stays hovering over an area and then descends into the water, abdomen vertical.

She lays an egg and goes back up vertically, then again, back to touch the water with her abdomen vertical. It goes very fast (hence the low quality of the photo) and does a short hover from time to time, while the male patrols aggressively around her.

Four minutes later, it has finished and fly away. The male resumes its patient guard on its branch.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

27 May

Large Red Damselfly.
[Pyrrhosoma nymphula - Coenagrionidae -] (Petite Nymphe au corps de feu)

Tiny zygoptera (lady, their four wings are identical) of 3 cm, bright red, very active, with black legs. These beautiful damselflies can be approached without difficulty.

Black pterostigmas. Red eyes.

Since late April and early May I met a lot in tandem pairs near the spawning grounds. 

The male has the abdomen red and black bands at the end of the abdomen. The coloration of the females may vary and include varying degrees of red, even to red-less variant. Bands in the thorax (antehumeral) wide and red in adults.

The male holds the female during spawning. Below the male has the legs folded, it flutters.

There are crowds on the spawning grounds. And even a little traffic jam. Little mistake of drivers, which is the proprietary one?

Spawning in group. The abdomen of the female is deeply immersed in water under a twig or duckweed where it will drill a hole and insert the egg.

Encountered in pools of stagnant water with a beautiful vegetation.

And then there are the contortionists.
This one alighted with a straight abdomen and a suddenly bending it in this strange way; one can almost hear a click.

All those exercises starve! At the expense of the spider...

... quickly swallowed.

The last one... because it has well chosen the background isn't?