Common Whitetail Dragonfly

I was a little surprised that, until this late May trip to Sourland, I didn't get any pictures of the male Common Whitetail dragonflies this season. That ended on this trip, as I got reasonable photographs of 5 of them (which probably means I saw 2-3 times that many). These guys were all buzzing one another, trying to establish a territory that'll impress the females. Optimally they'll try and hold 30-100 feet of shoreline, though Sourland has a fairly small pond that makes for a lot of competition for that space.

I'm sure I don't have a full appreciation about what's really going on among the dragonflies at the pond. The aerial battles among the males of a species are pretty clear, and males pursuing females is fairly straightforward, though I can only guess what the inter-species interactions are about. I'm fairly sure larger dragonfly species will prey on smaller dragonfly species, but evenly matched species could be ignored or could be subject to territorial fights. Presumably there's a dragonfly "pecking order", though I can't claim to understand it.

May 27, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 133211141, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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