Female Blue Dasher

Here's a female Blue Dasher Dragonfly, following up yesterday's male Blue Dasher Dragonfly.

As you might notice, the species common name comes from the pruinose on the male. Other than a little blue on the head, the female doesn't have a heck of a lot of blue.

They also like to perch with a pair of their wings held ahead of their head. This isn't unique to Blue Dashers, but it's a little irregular.

Before they're adults, dragonflies live as small aquatic predatory nymphs called naiads. Nymphs and larva are two common ways for insects to grow into adults. Unlike larva, nymphs never go through a pupa metamorphosis stage like moths/caterpillars do. Instead nymphs are structurally similar to adults, and get more similar as they go through their instars. 

The naming convention comes from Greek mythology. Nymphs are minor female deities, and naiads are basically water nymphs.

August 15, 2020 at Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve


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