A pair of Scarce Chasers in the mating wheel position on a dead stem. The male on the right of the image, has a hairy brown thorax and a chalky blue abdomen. His face is black and his eyes are blue, with a small area of purply-red at the back edges. The female, on the left, is orangey brown. Her face is orange, and her eyes are red above and green below. The male's abdomen is curved up over her face and head, and the claspers at the end of his abdomen are holding the back of her head. She is bent round in a sitting position, with her abdomen laid along the stem underneath the male's, so that her genitalia, at the end of her abdomen, can lock into his, which are located below his second abdominal segment. She has her first pair of legs crooked just below her head, in a resting position that's common for chaser dragonflies, but her middle and back legs are wrapped around his abdomen, where this and other matings have caused a patch of the blue chalky coating to be rubbed away, revealing the dark red carapace beneath.
Dragonfest:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/337197...
#insects #invertebrates #odonata #dragonfly #ScarceChaser #LibellulaFulva #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #InsectThursday
