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Diversitas naturae
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Sympetrum sanguineum (Bloedrode heidelibel (BE) / Ruddy Darter (EN) / Blutrote Heidelibelle (DE) / Sympétrum rouge sang (FR) ) is a species of dragonfly of the family Libellulidae.
First of all: The yellowish brown specimen below is a female, the red section in the top of the image is the abdomen of a male... but why is that red abdomen in that position? What is happening? This image is all about mating, but this needs some explaining:
Most adult dragonfly males occupy territories near the water. These territories are defended against other males. When a female of the same species enters the territory of a male, the male grabs her behind or between the eyes. To do so, males have special designed appendages at the end of segment 10 (at the tip of the abdomen). (note: Female odonates also have appendages, but very small and functionless. These are called cerci.) In this image you can clearly see the apendages of the male grabbing behind the eyes of the female. The shape of the appendages of a species is typical for that species which prevents bastardising. For us it can be a great help to get the right determination of the species.
Two dragonflies being attached to each other this way are called a tandem - that is what you see in the image.
But of course the story continues:
Before forming a tandem the male transfers his sperm from the opening underneath segment 9 to the copulation device underneath segment 2 by making a loop of his (very flexible) abdomen. When the tandem is formed, the female reaches to this copulation device with her genitalia, located underneath her segments 8 and 9. Now a loop, called copula or mating wheel is formed. I showed such a mating wheel in this image). During the copulation, males of some species remove the sperm of earlier copulations (=other males) from the female’s genitalia.
After the copulation, the females start ovipositing. Most Sympetrum species remain in tandem during ovipositing. The other ones divide after copulation. With many of these species, males guard the females during ovipositing, hovering above them or sitting near them on a plant or stone.
Image: Deurne (BE) - 14/08/2010
the same species fit. Very rarely however, bastardising occurs.
© Johan Dierckx
The photos on this site are copyrighted, which prohibits anyone to use them to sell, give away, use in email or newsgroups, use in a homepage or otherwise showing to the public without my explicit, prior, written permission. Please feel free to use the "contact"-button below to contact me with any questions.
All species are photographed in their natural habitat, without cutting or capturing them, and with maximal respect and the least possible disturbance to the environment.
(To see species in the same taxonomic rank (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus), please use the tags provided with the image. The last tag is the Iso-code for the country where the image was taken. Image-date in DD/MM/YYYY format.)
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@Monique: Geen idee of het pijnlijk is, maar aangezien de aanhangsels zeer soortspecifiek zijn, zou ik denken dat ze heel erg precies moeten passen bij het vrouwtje en ze er dus niet zo erg veel last van moet hebben. De natuur zit toch wonderlijk in mekaar he ...
@daniela scharnowski: Thank you for the compliments again. I almost never use flash in my images for the reason you give here and because natural light is so much richer then flash.
NB. I did find the Issoria lathonia on my trip yesterday ! Indeed a very active species and not very willing to show the underside of the wings. Got a few registration-shots but don't know if there will be some realy good ones - still have to sort (you know that problem... )
@Loner: For me it is also very fascinating to see all these details. I was lucky to get this close to get a good look and a clean shot of this. Nature is always surprising. Have a nice day, both !
@JOSE LUIS BERNAL: Thank you very much, Jose. I'm sorry to answer in English, I don't speak spannish. (Translated your comment with Google translator).
@♏arleen: Deze bleven echt een hele tijd zitten in de vegetatie aan de rand van een vijvertje. Ik ben begonnen met de volledige tandem erop te zetten en dan telkens een stukje dichterbij ... en dichterbij ... tot deze opnamen toe. Die kans heb je uiteraard niet al te vaak, maar ik was zelf ongelooflijk versteld van alle details die te zien zijn. En eh... libellen hoeven dit dan ook niet te lezen he :p
@kitty: Thank you very much for your comment on this one, Kitty.
@chris B: Bedankt voor je bezoekje en je commentaar, Chris. Ik wens je nog een fijne dag.
@Veronique: nature always is ... Almost every photo-trip I discover something new ...
@Wolfen: Thank you very much for your appreciation. Glad you like it that much !
@Mascha: Dit is ongeveer 90% uitsnede van het oorspronkelijke beeld. Gewoon even de compositie wat rechtgezet, want dat was op het terrein het laatste van mijn zorg - adem inhouden en zo dicht mogelijk geraken zolang ze bleven zitten ... Die gelegenheid krijg je niet elke dag natuurlijk... Ik heb nog enkele opnamen iets dichter bij kunnen maken, maar die zijn jammer genoeg niet voldoende qua scherpte.
@Shayna: Thank you very much for your visit and comment, Shayna.
@Sangeeth: Thank you very much, Sangeeth.
@Marilla: A once in a lifetime opportunity to get this close I think ...
@Dutçh: Nature is always so fascinating and surprising .... And euhm... I know some of "us" do ... :P
@Julie Brown: You're welcome, Julie. For me it is always interesting to know what you see and I think most people have no idea about this image ...
@Magda: It looks like you visited almost my entire portfolio :-) Thanks for making time to comment on so many images and i'm realy glad you enjoyed looking at them. Greetz !
Canon EOS 400D
1/160 second
F/7.1
ISO 200
150 mm
animalia
arthropoda
insecta
odonata
libellulidae
sympetrum
be
