Cooperative Blue Dasher - Pachydiplax longipennis

deleted

… john and jane balaban, 8 July, 2007 - 10:43am

deleted too

… john and jane balaban, 8 July, 2007 - 10:41am

The gender is definitely male

Females retain their yellow and brown coloring, but males turn powdery blue with age. Don't know why, but Pachydiplax and several other dragonflies seem to like to rest with wings cocked forward. Always wondered if it provides some stability in the wind, keeping them constantly facing downwind, but never collected any data to check.
We're wondering if, with all the images already on the Pachydiplax pages, you might select some of these for the guide and some for Frass. People would get to view the ones you Frass for thirty days, but then they would be gone. Those in the guide would stay. We find 1 of 6, 3 of 6, 4 of 6, and 6 of 6, particularly interesting, but you may see it otherwise. And, of course, if you want to keep all 6 in the guide, that's your choice to make.
Wonderful that he was so cooperative!

… john and jane balaban, 5 July, 2006 - 7:38pm

I was thinking that.

The whole wind stability thing I was thinking too but this day was particularly calm no wind at all.

I have my personal super-high res pictures of this guy so feel free to frass what you want and keep what you want.

… Gerry Bunker, 5 July, 2006 - 9:00pm

The wing thing

Don't know the reason, but it is characteristic. In Kathy Biggs' Dragonflies of California the author notes "wings often held downward."

In this instance, I wonder if it has something to do with heat. My guess is that it was hot that day, as the dragon is exhibiting some obelesking, i.e. raising its abdomen to reduce exposure to the sun.

… Ron Hemberger, 1 February, 2007 - 10:47pm