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Tag Archives: dragonfly ovipositing

258/366 Oviposition

14 Monday Sep 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects

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dragonflies, dragonfly ovipositing, oviposition, pond, reflections in pond

Something of an arty shot today: reflections of oviposition at the pond this morning. [Normal service will be resumed tomorrow!]

200914 ovipositing

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216/365 Ovipositing

04 Sunday Aug 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

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#365DaysWild, British dragonflies, dragonfly, dragonfly ovipositing, Emperor dragonfly, female Emperor ovipositing, Lavernock Nature Reserve, oviposit

Oviposit: verb; a zoological term, relating especially to insects, which means to lay an egg or eggs. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word first came in to use in the early 19th century and is a combination of ‘ovi’ for egg and ‘posit’, from the Latin verb ponere, meaning to place.

190804 female emperor (2)

Today, at Lavernock Nature Reserve, I was eating my lunch while sitting on the bench near the dragonfly pond, when this female Emperor dragonfly came along and began ovipositing, carefully manoeuvring her body to place several eggs beneath each lily pad before moving on to the next. All the while, her mate was patrolling overhead to ensure no one interfered with this important process.

190804 female emperor (1)

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Dragons at Lavernock

27 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, parks

≈ 2 Comments

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British dragonflies, Broad-bodied Chaser, Common Darter, dragonflies, dragonfly ovipositing, Emperor dragonfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve

There were some cracking dragonflies scooting around the pond at Lavernock Nature Reserve yesterday.

170827 Common darter male
170827 Common darter female

Both the male and the female Common darters posed very obligingly for me.

170827 Emperor male

The male Emperor kept busy patrolling the pond and indulging in occasional rapid trysts with a female. Judging by his tattered wings, he’s notched up quite a few trysts in recent days / weeks. He only stopped once, and then very briefly, so this photo doesn’t really do him justice.

170827 Emperor female

The female Emperor was then kept busy laying eggs at various spots all around the pond edges. A woman’s work is never done!

170827 Broad-bodied chaser male

The star of the show was this gorgeous male Broad-bodied chaser. Apparently, this is very late in the season for them, and he was looking pristine, so perhaps he had only recently hatched. Whatever his story, he was a stunning sight.

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National Dragonfly Week: The Emperor

31 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 5 Comments

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Anax imperator, dragonflies, dragonfly, dragonfly ovipositing, Emperor dragonfly, National Dragonfly Week 2016

We’re finishing National Dragonfly Week with a grand flourish … let me introduce you to the royalty of the dragonfly world, the Emperor (Anax imperator) and his female, who, strangely enough, is not called the Empress but rather the female Emperor. I think we need to change that!

160731 Emperor male (1)

At around 78mm (just over 3 inches) long, these are Britain’s biggest dragonflies, twice as large as most damselflies, as you can see in my photo below right (sorry for the poor quality of this one but I wanted to show the size comparison). Though they are usually found around water – canals, lakes, ponds, ditches, slow-moving rivers, I have also seen the males hawking over the wildflower areas and around the trees and shrubs at my local cemetery, where the nearest water source is perhaps a kilometre away as the dragonfly flies.

160731 Emperor male (2)
160731 Emperor fem ovipositing (2)

The males are very territorial and seem to be constantly on the move, flying around the boundaries of their empires, chasing away other intruding males, hunting for food (insects, butterflies, tadpoles) and even eating as they fly. After mating – also on the wing – the female lays her eggs (known as ovipositing, see above right and below) in amongst vegetation in the water. The Emperors and their Empresses can be seen flying from June to August, in southern parts of Britain, though they seem gradually to be extending their empires northwards.

160731 Emperor fem ovipositing (3)

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The B-B C, but not as you know it

26 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Broad-bodied Chaser, dragonflies, dragonfly, dragonfly ovipositing, Libellula depressa, National Insect Week

For this last day of National Insect Week 2016 we have one of my favourite types of insect, the dragonfly. Meet the Broad-bodied Chasers (or Libellula depressa to the scientifically minded). If we’re being politically correct, we won’t call them fat – they just happen to be a bit wider in the body than most other dragonflies. Both male and female start off a golden brown colour, but Mr B-B C soon develops a rather dapper layer of blue powdery granules (pruinescence) which matches perfectly with the yellow dots they both have along the sides of their abdomens.

160626 Broad-bodied chaser male

I’ve seen two pairs of Broad-bodied Chasers so far this year, both around small ponds which the males regularly patrol to ensure no intrusions into their territories. I’ve also been privileged to see them mating, a rather brief in-flight encounter, and then to see the female ovipositing – dipping her lower abdomen quickly into the water while in flight, to deposit her eggs into vegetation below the water level (as shown in the photos below). If you’re in southern England or Wales, these beauties will be around till September so go check out the show.

160626 Broad-bodied chaser female ovipositing

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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