arnemf's Favorites

Bioblitz in the fenced area Høstemark Friday and Saturday, owned by Aage V. Jensen Naturfond, with approx. 150 Red Deer and no public access.
No big highlights regarding observed dragonflies, but Aeshna juncea, was very active at a pond.
Here a mating wheel is disturbed by Anax imperator, a species where males are really aggressive towards other aesnid dragonflies. There are two males wanting to interact with the mating wheel of the slightly smaller dragonfly species.
The A. imperator is a tropical species, which has become very common in Denmark, during the last 30 years, while A. juncea has been here for thousands of years. The former is found from South Africa, to southern Scandinavia, while the latter is found in a band around the globe, in the northern hemisphere.

What I suspect that the A. imperator is doing, is trying to bite the two upper appendages of the male A. juncea, holding the females head. I have several times photographed male damselflies seemingly trying to do this to a tandem of damselflies, but I also suspect that is the reason why this Aeshna eremita (photographed in Canada), only has the bases of its upper appendages left.
It’s the largest Aeshna species in Northern America.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4731171

August 2022.
Høstemark, Aalborg, Denmark.

A male Sympetrum sanguineum dropped down in the water, and was attacked by Diving Beetles (Acilius sulcatus), and vanished from the surface about 25 min. after hitting the water.
September 2021.
Svanemosen, Kolding, Denmark.

a male
The second specimen found in Russia after the holotype a century ago, at exactly the same elevatoin but at the different side of the Caucasus. Appeared flying over an asphalted pond bank while the exact habitat not found.

A male damselfly lands on top of a male dragonfly, and tries to form a tandem. I have more pictures, but unfortunately the damselfly is more or less blurred by movements, as I opted for a small aperture just before the damselfly appeared.

May 2011, Rössjöholm, Sweden.

I present to you: the largest dragonfly in the world, featuring my face for size comparison! :P Photos simply don't convey its sheer size and bulk but hopefully having something for comparison helps.

Anyway, story time! This guy was flying around erratically for at least an hour and a half since we arrived - I assume due to the missing wing half. I hadn't seen it myself but a couple of my friends had, and it somehow hit me in the side of the head and quickly flew off. :P
Anyway, while we were all chilling around the river, it decided to fly straight into the waterfall (in the background in pic 3) and was promptly swept downstream. What else could I do?? I jumped in and chased after it! 😂
As you can tell from the photos, my swim was successful, and I ended up with the most enormous dragonfly I have ever seen right before me. :P I can't even properly describe how enormously huge it was. And those amazing cerci! I gave it some time to dry off, but being humid tropical Queensland, it wasn't happening very quickly. It was more than happy to sit on my hand and so I wondered if it would prefer somewhere a bit higher and drier :P
So that is how it ended up on my face! As it dried and we were plagued by march flies, the obvious solution was to give him one to eat. He accepted it gratefully and somehow ate the entire thing in a single bite. Hopefully that goes a way into showing just how huge and formidable these guys are! Not content, he then sliced his huge mandibles into my nose -_- and had to be gently prized off. He slowly lapped up blood for a while after but luckily didn't do any more biting! If I squint in the mirror I can still see a faint line there now :P
He sat for about an hour before we had to leave and I left him on a shrub. I hope he was okay with half a wing missing, but there wasn't much else I could do. All in all one of the best experiences of my life! :D

First photo is by Haley Harding because I am incapable of taking selfies :P