Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Painted Lady

In good nick

by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[DavidB]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Do Dragonflies eat bird poo?


Common Darter by David Bell, on Flickr

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Do Dragonflies eat bird poo?

No, only insects. They will land and rest on any solid surface.

Harold

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Do Dragonflies eat bird poo?

I'd be interested to know if you saw any apparent 'feeding' or just a quick rest on a surface. Observation of that would be helpful.

Although they are ravenous carnivores needing to eat huge amounts of 'meat' to keep them flying I have spent a happy half hour looking at some scientific papers about minerals and dragonflies.

My starting point was that it is known that immature male butterflies need to 'lick' at the ground in order that they can ingest minerals which are important in their sexual development. And that mating is only possible after this. So I wanted to see if a similar situation occurs in dragonflies.

Instead I have found a couple of papers of interest. The first was very deep biology (ie beyond me) looking at the vital role of calcium in the flight muscles. I am no wiser about the source of the calcium but thought it interesting.

The other looked at the high numbers of dragonflies at gravel pits and quarries. Where there is mineral rich water. The numbers at gravel pits is a phenomenon I can immediately relate to. But that may just be a good place to breed and safe for the nymphs...If you find anything else I'd be interested.

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Teasal Bee

Common Carder Bee (yes/no??)

by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[DavidB]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I'd be interested to know if you saw any apparent 'feeding' or just a quick rest on a surface. Observation of that would be helpful.

Although they are ravenous carnivores needing to eat huge amounts of 'meat' to keep them flying I have spent a happy half hour looking at some scientific papers about minerals and dragonflies.

My starting point was that it is known that immature male butterflies need to 'lick' at the ground in order that they can ingest minerals which are important in their sexual development. And that mating is only possible after this. So I wanted to see if a similar situation occurs in dragonflies.

Instead I have found a couple of papers of interest. The first was very deep biology (ie beyond me) looking at the vital role of calcium in the flight muscles. I am no wiser about the source of the calcium but thought it interesting.

The other looked at the high numbers of dragonflies at gravel pits and quarries. Where there is mineral rich water. The numbers at gravel pits is a phenomenon I can immediately relate to. But that may just be a good place to breed and safe for the nymphs...If you find anything else I'd be interested.

The Dragonfly flew off a couple of times, and returned (as they do) to exactly the same spot with its mouth parts touching the bird poo each time, and its mouth parts were visibly moving. I've just checked my images and I photographed it in 3 different positions, all with its mouth touching the poo. They were 29 mins apart, not I spent that long watching it as I walked to a nearby hide, saw a Common Sandpiper partially obscured be vegetation, then walked back past that post again.

I wondered whether it was coincidence, or something similar to butterflies taking minerals from the surface of the ground (having seen a group of Green-veined Whites on the ground a couple weeks ago around the remains of a puddle).

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Return of Toadflax Brocade 2

Here are shots of a larva a week later.

Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 x2 TC, Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, f11, hand-held.

Harold

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Brilliant colours Harold, lovely photo......

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Spider through the Spyhole...

Unsure of ID. Photo'd in wet scrapes area at WWT, on a reed leaf...

Perhaps a jumping spider of sorts...

Taken with the TG-5

by Mark Johnson, on Flickr

[wornish]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Enjoying the feast.

[art frames]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I shot this using the 40-150 with the teleconverter. It is a great time of year for dragonfly pairing.



I also shot some video (which is a challenge at that length and handheld). If you click on the lower image you see the video on Flickr.
There you can see the contents of the abdomen of the male (the red one on top) and the vigorous muscle clenching and fluids inside his transparent abdomen. well worth two minutes of viewing.



I hope to get some better shots, I prefer to not use autofocus but it was windy and I am pleased under the circumstances. But a monopod and manual focus would be worthwhile.

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

I shot this using the 40-150 with the teleconverter. It is a great time of year for dragonfly pairing.

I also shot some video (which is a challenge at that length and handheld). If you click on the lower image you see the video on Flickr.
There you can see the contents of the abdomen of the male (the red one on top) and the vigorous muscle clenching and fluids inside his transparent abdomen. well worth two minutes of viewing.

Common Darters.

Nice image and video.

Harold

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Enjoying the feast.

Superb colours and detail Dave...Excellente

[MJ224]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Some sort of Crane Fly I think. Lives at a stone circle in the Brecon Beacons, altitude of 360 metres or so...

ID appreciated

[Harold Gough]

Re: Communal Dragonfly, Butterfly and Insect photo thread

Mating Hoverflies Sphaerophoria interrupta

I shot this set in may but before I could post them someone else uploaded similar images so I put them aside.

These two, still together, kept moving around to different sides of the stem, sometimes spiraling round it.
This species is one of the smaller but conspicuous species and is my first capture of it.

I have been told, by someone who photographs a lots of hoverflies, that it I an unusual mating position.

The stereo is crosseye.

Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 x2 TC, Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, f11, hand-held.

Harold