Eastern Pondhawk

Here's one of the 1st Eastern Pondhawks I've seen this season. Like quite a few insects, they're light enough to safely land on pond scum.

This was probably the 2nd and 3rd dragonfly I learned to identify, shortly after the Common Whitetail. Why do I say 2nd and 3rd? Well, originally I thought the blue males and the green females were separate species. But once I got identifications for them, I realized that those dragonflies I thought to be rivals might have been spouses.

I haven't seen females out yet. My impression is that with some dragonflies the males emerge 1st, squabble over territory, and once their fighting has simmered down the females arrive on the scene. If you're wondering what the females (and immature males) look like, here's an old post from a prior year.

This spot also had Blue Dashers zipping around. I've heard different things about the way dragonflies of different species interact. Sometimes (especially if there's a substantial size difference) they'll prey on one another, and sometimes they'll treat other species as rivals to be driven away, and other times they seem to accept each other, recognizing that at least they're not romantic rivals. I anthropomorphize them a bit, I suspect the relationship is a bit tense but there's a realization that a dragonfly has to pick its battles.

June 4, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 205022230, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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