Damselflies Ready to Mate!

Sorry this one isn't for sale unless you want a print!  I just thought you would like to see where some of my ideas for the canvas come from... and well since we are on the subject of dragonflies mating and in my last post you just got to learn about how they attach to one another and start to fly off together I thought I would give you a visual on the next step.....

After their aerobatics together they perch together, yes that's right still attached.  As you can see here the male pretty much has that female by the neck or behind the eyes, dragging her along at this point.  Well, that's what it looks like to me...and primitive to boot!  Anyway in a few minutes the mating will look pretty darn cute (which no I did not get a picture of.... I mean privacy for insects please!)  as the two actually end up forming the shape of a heart with their bodies as the female wraps her tail end under to meet his abdomen (area near the chest).  Isn't that cute & romantic!  Pretty flexible little creatures too & no yoga classes to teach them!

So I believe these two are damselflies which you can discern from the delicate shapes of their bodies and, as mentioned in an earlier post, and the eyes are very different and do not wrap around their whole head like the dragonfly's. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Continued Courship

 

"Misty Lagoon Study"

9 x 12 x 3/4 oil on canvas

$95

 

 

In my last post I never did describe this species.  Tell you the truth they were zippin around the pound so fast it was hard to get a good look at them!  Bright red though so my thought is Needham's Skimmer or Roseate Skimmer. 

Back to the courtship.  So once the female dragonfly has been captivated by the male, they are ready to do some aerobatics together as follows.  This involves the make actually hooking his end around the females neck/yeyse and dragging her along for the ride!  So barbaric I know!  The three part process is as follows...The female is perched.  The male perches on top of her and curves his abdomen under his body (yes he is very flexible) and grabs the female around the neck with his claspers.  Then voila!  They fly away with the male in the lead......

To be continued...

 

painting available at www.sophiemuseum.com
 



A New Species

"Misty Lagoon"

18 x 24 x 1 1/2 oil on canvas

$400

Now here's a sweet new guy that I spotted while in Dickinson, Texas visiting my friend Sue Bown at the Bide-A-While Art & Retreat Sanctuary.  Although the backside of her property is right on the bayou there is also a nifty little pond in the front across the street from the main house.  I had been out one morning stretching my legs after one of our fantastic crepe breakfasts and stumbled across these dragonflies skimming the waters and doing summersaults around each other.  It really is fun to watch them play and their courting ritual is as follows...

Females generally stay in forested areas for most of their lives and only visit the water areas when they are ready to lay their eggs.  I love how all of this is just done instinctually.  Some males stake out a territory and others simply stay near watered areas and intercept females when they enter the area.  Here's a sample day of courtship...

A female enters a males territory and perches.  The male flies toward her, hovers, and postures to show off his most colorful feature.  Somewhat like how men pose and show off their muscles.  It might of interest to you to know that in many of the dragonfly species the male is actually much more colorful and beautiful to look at than the female.  Back to courtship---depending on the species, the male may adopt a pose that gives a good look at his face, legs, wings or even the underside of his abdomen as if to moon her!  If the female is unimpressed she simply flies away... but if she finds the male acceptable she remains on her perch...

To be continued on the next post....

to purchase see my website purchase page www.sophiemuseum.com



More on Mating and...

 

"The Mystical Center - Up Close"

18 x 24 x 1 1/1 Oil on Canvas

$400

So there are in fact a few more differences between Damselflies and Dragonflies which I will mention now since I started that topic in the last post... A damselfy's  eyes are usually positioned on the side of it's head whereas a dragonfly's are so close together that they are nearly touching.  The most fascinating part of their eyes is that they are compound and this, so it is claimed by scientist, is their only sense organ to detect their prey.  What does that mean compound eye, you ask?  Well, as explained in Dragonflies by Cynthia Berger, the eyes are composed of smaller subunits, called ommatidia, or facets.  There may be up to thirty thousand of these per eye since the eyes nearly wrap around the whole head and each facet faces a slightly different direction and resolves a separate image.  That means that a dragonfly can see in nearly every direction simultaneously.  Talk about having eyes in the back of your head!  

Another interesting factor of their eye facets is that they respond independently to stimuli.  Furthermore, fast movements that would appear as blurs to us humans appear clear to the dragonfly.  How this is known I can not answer.  

The most fascinating part about their eyes is that they four or five proteins in the retina which allows them to see ultraviolet lights.  They can also see the polarization of light.  Allegedly, neither of these are visible to humans since they only have three proteins.  Apparently this may help them to navigate and identify bodies of water.  

Wow!  No time for the mating lesson.  I will continue you that next time....really!

 

To purchase see my website www.sophiemuseum.com

What's my species?

"The Mystical Center"

18 x 24 x 1 1/2 Oil on Canvas

$400

 

 

So here we have a little Dragonfly that is perched on a pond leaf.  Or is it something else? Do you know there are actually Dragonflies and Damselflies and they are 2 different creatures in many ways.  Want to know how to tell the difference?  Of course you do!  Dragonflies normally perch with their winds spanned out and Damselflies hold their wings up above their back bodies together, so if you looked at them sideways you might think they had just one wing.  There are other differences of course but I need to get back to the lesson...
 

So after the Dragonfly emerges for the last time as a water creature and completes it's metamorphosis,  it is ready to fly.  It is known as a juvenile. Imagine that and they haven't even done anything!  Well what they are really saying is that the dragonflies are not sexually mature......So the females take off into the wilderness and start foraging for food and basically have a grand ol time!  The males tend to stay near the water areas staking out territories, because you know....eventually the female will come back to the water to mate....... more on that in the next post..... 

Eastern Amberwing

 

"Basking in the Warm Glow"

18 x 24 x 1 1/2

$400

 

So there I was minding my own business in the garden when low & behold this beautiful creature shows up for some attention.  The latin name for this species is Perithemis tenera which is derived from Themis, the guardian of peace and justice in Greek mythology.  Well wasn't I blessed to be having these hanging around me all last summer and guarding the garden!

 

Back to the lesson on dragonflies.  So after about 11 months the nymph just stops eating underwater and becomes restless.  The little critter intuitively knows to just stop.  Then after a day or so it begins to emerge out of the water by say climbing up a reed or a cattail.  It then latches on real tight to whatever it is on, and normally in a verticle position, and begins its last molt or final phase of metamorphosis from water dweller to freedom flyer!  At first, the juvenile is very vulnerable as the wings need to have hemolymph pumped into them.  This starts to happen after the dragonfly starts breathing and takes about an hour.  Many fall prey to other species at this point but for those that make it, its flying and fun times......

 

More on the dragonfly in the next post



Eastern Pondhawk

 

9 x 12 Oil on Canvas

Welcome to My World
$100

 

Here's the mini version of the 'Deep in the Lagoon" piece.  I often do a smaller version first to test out the colors and shapes and images.  If I get a really good feeling about it I sometimes make a larger version, but not always.  In this case I did....now back to the dragonfly lesson.

 

After the female lays her eggs, often in a pond, lake, swamp, marsh or river, and they hatch, the little creature is known as a nymph.  It is far from beautiful to look at like the female nymphs portrayed through out history.  In fact you may even run from one if it was a large version!  The body is dull dark brown to black and it has no wings.  The creature lives in the water, crawling on the silty ground, and forages for food such as tad pols.  It also molts often, which is casting off a former version of it's body as it grows.  It's sort of cool the way an insect can do that and we humans probably do as well we just don't leave the skin hanging around for others to investigate! Ours is perhaps more subtle as in emotional or energy bodies molting as we release unnecessary burdens or cares.  Dragonflies typically spend 11 months out of their year long life cycle in the water as a nymph...(not all dragonflies only have a one year cycle some are longer)

 

More on the year of a dragonfly on the next blog.  



Blue Dasher

18 x 24 x 1 1/2 Oil on Canvas

"Deep in the Lagoon"

$400



Or is it an Eastern Pondhawk?  Well considering the fact that I found him, and many of his friends, while out on one of my local adventures to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens in Stockbridge, MA, I am putting my money on the Pondhawk!  The Botanical gardens has this great pond toward the right back side of the property.  In mid July and into August the dragonflies are there in swarms.  Many species too, not just the Pondhawks.  I suspect it is mating time and the females will be laying their eggs in the pond as it is fertile ground for the nymphs that are to be born... 

Did you know that a dragon fly has basically two different lives?  One in the water and one in flight.  It's fascinating and I will continue the educational lesson on my next blog.  For now enjoy the Blue Dasher....oh I mean the Eastern Pondhawk!

& Guiding Yoga Nidra in Key West was a blessing!  Beautiful people there at the Yoga Sanctuary on Duval Street....so check it out!