Dragonflies have been gracing our planet for around 300 million years and as such are one of the oldest known species on earth today!
Sex amongst dragonflies is initiated by the males. They have incredibly good vision and use it to recognise a female of the same type by her colour, size and general flight patterns.
Once he has located a potential mate, the male dragonfly must while in flight, fly close enough to grasp her from behind, hanging on tight to her thorax. He must grasp the female’s prothorax (neck) with his cerci (these are tactile sensory appendages that many insects have ) and once in this position ,called tandem linkage, they can fly together while preparing for copulation.
The male stores his sperm in a gonopore (a secondary sex organ on his ninth body segment ) so must first transfer this to his penis, under the second body segment.
Some types of male dragonflies have barbs on their penises which they can use to remove sperm of another male before depositing their own.
The female sex organ opening is close to the thorax, while the males penis is close to the second body segment so it requires a ‘wheel formation’ as it is called to correctly connect their bodies.
A female is likely to mate with a number of males if she gets the chance. Some males however will stay attached up to the point that eggs are laid to be sure they are successful as sperm donors.
The female lays her eggs onto sub aquatic plants in still water or occasionally straight into the water itself if no plants are available.
Dragonflies live in both tropical and temperate climates. So we get to enjoy their presence in many places in the world. In the tropics eggs can hatch in as little as 5-7 days whereas in temperate climates eggs may sit throughout the cold winter months before hatching in the spring.
The marvels of nature are a constant source of wonder and inspiration. Did you get close up to nature recently?
