r/Dragonflies

NE Wisconsin

Male of Anax parthenope (Lesser Emperor).

#AnaxParthenope #LesserEmperor #Dragonfly #Odonata #Nature #Wildlife

Autumn Meadowhawks and a slender spreadwing in there for a send off 🪷Next season can't come fast enough.

Beautiful specimens — as I’m sure you already know, you can clearly see in two of them that they are starting to take on the colours of mature males, though not quite fully yet. Newly emerged dragonflies do not usually have the final adult colours; they acquire these after a period of maturation.

Newly emerged adult dragonflies (called tenerals) are typically pale, soft-bodied, and lack the full adult colouration and patterning. The hardening of the cuticle and the development of the final colours take place over a maturation period that usually lasts from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on the species and weather conditions.

In the genus Sympetrum (including the Red-veined Darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii), immature males are predominantly yellowish and only gradually develop the characteristic bright red colouration of mature males.

American Rubyspot in Marana Arizona

I’ve always considered the dragonfly the guardian of my farm so I paid tribute to them

Here we can see a very characteristic nymph of the family Gomphidae among filamentous algae in a river, accompanied by some of its favorite prey: mayfly nymphs. This is a video filmed in the wild, not in an aquarium.

Best regards.

Not the best pics but I was happy to see them.