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Monday, July 25, 2011

This Male Widow is not a Widower


male widow skimmer dragonfly

Do you remember the female Widow Skimmer dragonfly? I had been seeing the males, but hadn't gotten one to hold still long enough to capture a picture. That's makes it sound like I had something to do with it! Ha! They do whatever they want and I run around and chase them. Maggie does her part by walking ahead of me and making them fly before I can get close enough to use the camera.

But I'm pretty happy with these. And this is the first dragonfly that I've captured images of both sexes. With the white band outside of the dark patches, there is no illusion of a butterfly at all. A number of dragonflies have chalky white patches like this, and the pattern shows the species.

male widow skimmer dragonfly

See It's a Butterfly, It's a Dragonfly, It's a Widow for the female widow skimmer dragonfly

9 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

This shows your skill and determination that you were able to capture both. Each kind is very beautiful. I'm glad I got to see pictures of both.

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing .lovely

Karen and Gerard said...

Great pictures! How can you tell the difference between the genders?

Geri O'Hara said...

your photos are brilliant

vanilla said...

You've done it again! Nice capture.

Ann said...

wonderful shots. How kind of Maggie to be so helpful :)

Sharkbytes said...

Ratty- If I had the time I'd go out in the field and just wait for the dragonfly jewels to light where I could take their pictures.

Umihoney- I'm glad you like them. They are so beautiful

Karen- click the link to see the female- it has no white on the wings (for this species)

Geri- good sunlight and that nice honeysuckle background helped

vanilla- hey- if I take enough pix some are bound to turn out, right?

Ann- that's Mags, always the eager helper!

betchai said...

wow, very vivid shots, and you are so good to be able to tell the female from the male.

Sharkbytes said...

betchai- lots of the dragonflies have totally different patterns or colors on the differing sexes. I finally have a pretty good book!