An immature male Scarce Chaser clings to a dead stem. The image is cropped square so that only his head and thorax can be seen, along with his wings which are wrapped forwards on either side of the stem. He is a medium-sized dragonfly, and because he is very fresh he's largely orange, with black legs, and eyes that are a kind of muddy red on top and green below. His wings are mainly clear, but they have networks of bright orange veins towards their front edges, and the hind wings have a black patch at their bases. The costa - the thick vein along the front of each wing - is black, and so are the wing spots. As this dragonfly matures his thorax will darken to brown and his abdomen will acquire the chalky blue coating called pruinescence. His face will turn black, and his eyes will change to a clear light blue.
A female Beautiful Demoiselle stands on a nettle leaf. She is a large metallic green and gold damselfly, with shimmering golden wings. She has angled her abdomen upwards, so she slants down through the image from the top right corner towards the bottom left. She is holding her wings slightly apart.
Freshly Scarce:
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