Dragonfly Assortment Pack

Here are 3 dragonflies who are staking out basically the same territory. I almost got each of them into the picture. Left to right, I believe they are a Slaty Skimmer, a Blue Dasher, and a Widow Skimmer, and they're all males trying to stake out a territory. (Controlling a desirable territory seems to go a long way towards making a male dragonfly attractive to a female dragonfly.)

When I took this picture, my assumption was that these 3 species would tolerate each other since they're different species and thus not competing for the same females. And there's probably some truth to this; it's hard to believe a male dragonfly can claim to be controlling a territory with rival males perched this close.

But my copy of Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East (Dennis Paulson) suggests things might not be peaceful for long. About Widow Skimmers it claims "aggressive to males of their own and other species", and about the Blue Dasher it says "also fiercely aggressive to other skimmers with blue pruinosity". In theory at least 2 of these guys should be trying to drive off the others.

Perhaps the pruinosity of the Slaty Skimmer and Widow Skimmer don't look like the light blue of the Blue Dasher. And the Slaty Skimmer might be a little bigger than someone the Widow Skimmer would want to tangle with. I seem to recall some interactions that would switch the twigs they were on, but at least while I was there, they seemed to have some tolerance for each other.

July 14, 2021 at Duke Farms


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