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Author Topic: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)  (Read 379 times)

fgorga

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Several weeks ago Mark Nadler posted very nice photos of both a male Ebony Jewelwing and a male Blue Dasher.

I spent several hours yesterday photographing odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) and came away with nice photos of females for both of these species to complement his of the males.

Female Ebony Jewelwing


Female Blue Dasher


Comments always appreciated.

--- Frank (www.gorga.org/blog)
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francois

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Re: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2022, 06:30:13 am »

I really love the first one, this lady is very elegant! The second shot is nice too and the composition wasn't easy but the result is superb.
Spending all that time was really worthwhile.
Bravo.
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Francois

Bob_B

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Re: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2022, 08:49:54 am »

I agree, both are wonderful.
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Mark Nadler

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Re: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2022, 12:06:19 pm »

Both very nice.  forge, would you know why your ebony jeweling has those white marks on its wings and mind does not?  Is it a sexual marking? 

mark
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fgorga

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Re: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2022, 09:40:30 pm »

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Mark... yes, the white stigmas indicate that this individual is a female.

Most odonates (i.e. dragonflies and damselflies) show sexual differences in coloration. As is often seen with birds, male odes are generally more brightly colored than the females. Although, in the case of ebony jewelwings this difference is fairly minor as our photographs show.

One complication to identifying odes is that in some species the immature males are similar in color to females and only develop their distinctive coloration as they become sexually mature. This is the case with the blue dashers. In order to telling an immature male blue dasher from a female, one needs to look at traits other than their coloration. In this case, and as is often the case, the shape of the abdomen is diagnostic.

--- Frank
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Female Ebony Jewelwing (damselfly) and Blue Dasher (dragonfly)
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2022, 12:05:37 am »

Two excellent portraits.
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)
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