The Beautiful Demoiselles

[tojor]

This is some shots of our biggest and most impressive damselfly, The Calopteryx virgo (The Blue winged damselfly). They live in streaming water and the males each occupy a small area as their kingdom. If another males enters the kingdom he will be chased away, not by fighting, but by showing the intruder his beautiful wings. During the chase they enter the other ones kingdom and the chase is in reverse. This can go on for a long time. :smile:

A couple of the males.

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When a female enters the territory he gets all excited. He sits in front of her showing his wings and what a big boy he is. (Kind of like when we flex our muscles at the beach when a pretty girl walks by :biggrin She off course like most women plays hard to get and moves to some other vegetation and the play starts all over.

This is the female.

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At last she is so impressed with him and they decide to go steady.

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After the mating the male follows her when she delivers the egg on some dead vegetation in the water protecting her from other males.

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And they lived happily till the day they died knowing the genes were passed on. End of tale.

Thanks for watching.

 

[Flew]

Excellent shots Torben.

 

[spalding12]

Torben,
honestly, i don't know HOW you do it
the shots are incredible
textbook-quality
..... better than, actually

thanks for sharing these with us

 

[tojor]

Excellent shots Torben.

Thanks Frank. Shooting dragonflies is just as addictive to me as birding is to you (and cheaper too). :smile:

Torben,
honestly, i don't know HOW you do it
the shots are incredible
textbook-quality
..... better than, actually

thanks for sharing these with us

Thanks Greg. I do spend many hours with those creatures so it's mostly patience and luck. Getting to know the different species habits helps a lot too.

 

[fishbio]

Beautiful, as always, Torben. I appreciate the information with the pictures.

Cheers,

Larry

 

[pbenedic]

Yowza!!

Stunning. Just stunning.
Something for me to aspire to.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Butlerkid]

Torben,

What an excellent series! Thank you so much for sharing! Love the shot of the two mating!

 

[tojor]

Beautiful, as always, Torben. I appreciate the information with the pictures.

Cheers,

Larry

Thanks Larry. I love to tell a background story as well.

Stunning. Just stunning.
Something for me to aspire to.
Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the kind words Pat.

Torben,

What an excellent series! Thank you so much for sharing! Love the shot of the two mating!

Thanks Karen. The mating shot were the only one I was allowed to get, so I was very curious to see if it turned out Ok when I got home. Usually I try a few different f-stops.

 

[lanthier]

What a wonderful set Torben. The wings on the male in #1 are eerily sharp. Not sure if that is the best word to describe them, but wow!

 

[Spectre]

Beautiful Torben... You never disappoint. Great Job.

 

[tojor]

What a wonderful set Torben. The wings on the male in #1 are eerily sharp. Not sure if that is the best word to describe them, but wow!

Thanks Rich.

Beautiful Torben... You never disappoint. Great Job.

Thanks Paul.

 

[aman17]

Torbin ,another outstanding series.You've inspired me again to go out and look for some Dragons

 

[Nikkor AIS]

Torben: Thanks for posting these incredible capture's. The color, the detail the bokeh. There are no words...OO

Gregory

 

[GoGo]

Ohhhh My

Wondrous series of photographs!
Love them!

 

[tojor]

Torbin ,another outstanding series.You've inspired me again to go out and look for some Dragons

Thanks Arnie. Go out and get them. :smile:

Torben: Thanks for posting these incredible capture's. The color, the detail the bokeh. There are no words...OO

Gregory

Thanks Gregory. The 300mm f.4 is a great lens.

Wondrous series of photographs!
Love them!

Thanks Giorgio. I'm glad you liked them.

 

[j.ankanpaa]

Excellent shots as well as presentation of their adult live, Torben!

Looks like you have very dark winged females there, saw similar in Bulgaria.

Any sights of A. mixta yet?

 

[tojor]

Excellent shots as well as presentation of their adult live, Torben!

Looks like you have very dark winged females there, saw similar in Bulgaria.

Any sights of A. mixta yet?

Tak Jukka.

The A. mixta has been reported but I haven't seen it yet. Looking forward to it though. I've seen a couple of A. cyanea. The last couple of weeks I've mostly been chasing the A. viridis. Very beautiful but the most challenging I've done so far. They hide deep in the shadows of the tall grass in the mornings and they are probably the most shy ones I've encountered yet. I only got a few documentation shots. Late afternoon and evening the female flies down to the lake and oviposite on the water soldiers. I've watched them for a couple of late afternoons. A very exciting experience. One evening at least 100 females were ovipositing at the same time. Difficult to catch though because of the plants.

 

[Harry S.]

Torben, do you have a contract with those guys :smile:?
Simply amazing.
Although technically not as perfect as the other ones, I like the last one best.

Cheers

 

[threecats]

These are outstanding! Simply outstanding!
glenn

 

[tojor]

Torben, do you have a contract with those guys :smile:?
Simply amazing.
Although technically not as perfect as the other ones, I like the last one best.

Cheers

Thanks Harry. I know what you mean about the last shot, I think:smile:. It was a bit hard to get as the female kept changing positions and the male followed her around. I was standing in the middle of the stream and waiting for a shot where they both were turning their sides towards me. This is the only decent one I got. It was 34° C and the sun was very harsh.

These are outstanding! Simply outstanding!
glenn

Thanks a lot Glenn.