Common Whitetail Resting Before Battle

Here's one of our male Common Whitetail dragonflies taking a breather on some vegetation protruding from Dukes Brook. He'll probably be busy later defending his area of the brook.

This wasn't the 1st Common Whitetail I photographed last year - this 1 from the day before was - but my understanding is that you can spot them around here as early as April, making them one of the earlier dragonflies to make the scene. (Certainly you shouldn't be seeing Autumn Meadowhawks this early.)

Like many species of dragonfly, the males are not only aggressive towards males of their own species that could compete against them for a chance to mate, but will frequently also attack males of other species, especially if there's a vague resemblance between them. While this seems like a waste of energy, I guess when your only job is territorial defense, you don't want to take a chance that someone you thought was harmless turns out to be a breeding rival.

May 26, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 300288094, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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