More Autumn Meadowhawks

Female dragonflies and damselflies tend to hunt away from waterbodies, where mating and ovipositing take place.

For instance, I rarely see female Autumn Meadowhawks/Sympetrum vicinum on their own. They’re obviously out there, but I generally only see them when they’re mating. Here a pair form the Odonata mating wheel: the male grasps the female behind her head with the appendages at the end of his abdomen; she bends her abdomen tip forward to his secondary genitalia between his second and third abdomen segments. “Secondary” because sperm is produced at the end of the abdomen; the male transfers this sperm to his accessory genitalia near the thorax, where the female can access it while he holds her.

This is one Odonata species where the male continues to grasp the female behind the head as she oviposits by dropping fertilized eggs into the water. (The idea being that no one else can mate with her while he keeps ahold of her.)

Saturday was the last day I saw Autumn Meadowhawks, but then I wasn’t in Green-Wood yesterday.