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....

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