XL Big & Colorful Picture of Mating Damselflies
Let's get started with a big, colorful picture of mating dragonflies from Wimberley Texas! Scroll down for more info.
Many thanks to Gil for correcting me and pointing out these are not dragonflies as follows: You can easily be forgiven for calling these dragonflies. Damselflies can be told from dragonflies by the facts that damselflies have widely separated eyes and have forewings the same size and shape as their hindwings. Thus, your photo shows damselflies. Your damselflies are extending their wings at rest (similar to dragonflies), thus belong to the family Lestidae, or "spreadwings". These are Great spreadwings, Archilestes grandis. Historically, this species was found from Venezuela to the American Southwest, but, like many other species, has rapidly expanded northward in response to global warming, and is now found to Vermont.
I pushed the colors on this one! A more conventional version of the mating damselflies picture is here. If you have a wide gamut monitor, you are likely to see the picture above with some wild colors (unless you are running Firefox with the necessary plug-in).
This page features the "bug" pictures from the Marshland, 3/2008. The Marshland Flower page has a bee not shown here, though.
Gil: The dragonfly is a Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, it is widespread throughout North America. Your photograph shows a mature female, which resembles the male but has reddish-brown eyes.
Dragonfly: Nikon 300mm F4 ED lens! Hand-held, 1/350s at f7.1. Spider, same lens, 1/350 at f10.
1/500s, hand-held, f8, ISO500, Nikon D200, Nikon 300mm f4 ED lens, from 4/11/2008.
No ID on the Damselfly, I believe it just emerged/hatched, and is perched there to allow its exoskeleton to harden. Gil noted: I suspect when you photographed it, it had just emerged as an adult, and had not acquired its color yet. I observed: I believe you (Gil) are correct on the damselfly. I saw it land on the plant (it seemed a little wobbly) and then it just hung out there for a long time. It was very pale, almost white. No doubt it just hatched or whatever you call it ;-)
Damselfly pictures: Nikon Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 1/500 at f11 for above, 1/400 at f10 for top of page. ISO 500 selected on Nikon D200 camera for all pictures.
 See also: Nature Hike, The Woodlands, TX |  Marshland Flower Pictures are Here |  Damsel Fly on Texas Bluebonnet |
 Valentine Damselflies (mating) from 4/11/2008 |  Blue Dasher Dragonfly- Wild Eye Colors from 4/11/2008 | Animal Photos (Dick Locke's Critter Links) |
 Dragonflies on my Wimberley Picture Page | Spider Page! |
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