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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) » Dragonflies (Anisoptera) » Skimmers (Libellulidae) » Whitetails (Plathemis) » Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia)
Photo#827408
Common Whitetail: female ovipositing; time: 14:05:32 - Plathemis lydia - female
Copyright © 2013 Peter Chen 2.0

Common Whitetail: female ovipositing; time: 14:05:32 - Plathemis lydia - Female
Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois, USA
August 18, 2013
Size: ~3cm
She lays eggs in the steam.

From the timestamps on this sequence, the male chasing female was at 14:04:46, the ovipositing here is 14:05:32, less than 50 seconds later. Talk about speed dating! Too bad my shot of the aerial "wheel" was too frassed. According to the Kurt Mead book: "Each vigorous strike of her abdomen may send a drop of water up to a foot in the air".

They "broke up" about 2 seconds after this shot, so I never had a chance to shoot the male hovering over his woman while she laid eggs.

Update as of July 31, 2020: another female ovipositing in the same stream, with link to video https://bugguide.net/node/view/1871533

Images of this individual: tag all
Common Whitetail: male flying; time: 14:09:24 - Plathemis lydia - male Common Whitetail: female ovipositing; time: 14:05:32 - Plathemis lydia - female Common Whitetail: female hovering; time: 14:05:30 - Plathemis lydia - female Common Whitetail: male chasing female; time: 14:04:46 - Plathemis lydia - male - female
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Contributed by Peter Chen 2.0 on 20 August, 2013 - 12:41am
Last updated 7 August, 2020 - 8:50pm

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