A “teneral” or immature "Emperor"...... A newly emerged dragonfly is pale in colour without any dark markings. It is called a “teneral” or immature. It will fly off and feed until it is mature and its adult colours have developed. So yes, we have a one day break of HK mammals...with some pics I shot a couple of months ago that I meant to post..... These are of the emergence of a dragonfly at one of the ponds I dug in my garden in the UK...(but we have the same species in HK).
I have seen many emerge previously, but this time I tracked it with my camera, with the whole process over around 2 hours. first the nymph climbs up a reed, and later the case splits....
lets have a closer look...
and closer.......woah...alien!
Now fully out, but the wings are crumpled and need to dry....
so here is stage 2 of wing drying....
and almost dry and ready to fly....
one last close up....
Vulnerable to predators at this stage...but this one was fine and flew away soon after this was taken, midmorning.
following up with some hong kong pictures of - The BLUE-SPOTTED EMPEROR This photo by jack Ferguson.
This is the female emperor laying eggs. This is a type of hawker dragonfly, although the American’s call them darners. The males have a very strong territorial instinct so look for them on patrol.
Most dragonflies lay their eggs in water, sometimes inside the stems and leaves of emergent or submerged plants.
And just look at those huge eyes, yes, the eyes are one of the most dramatic parts of this incredible insect. It has approximately 30,000 ommatidia within its compound eyes, and it sees in colour. Its huge many faceted bulbous eyes means it can see in all 360 degrees around it, and they say 80% of the insect’s brain power is dedicated to its sight. It also has a flattened area right in front of its eyes with a concentration of eye cells that see directly in front. This is to ensure they capture their prey whilst in fast flight.
Here a dragonfly emerges as an adult from this last moult.
plus here a copy of a BLUE EMPEROR dragonfly that I shot flying past me in the UK last week.
