Damselfly murder?

[Diane Miller]

I'm new to dragonflies and damselflies, and was very surprised to see this. The victor hovered in the area a while (guarding eggs?) and the vanquished didn't resurface that I saw.

Canon 7D2, 100-400 II with 1.4X III, handheld at 560mm. ISO 1600, f/11, 1/1000 sec. Very basic LR adjustments and a very small amount of smart Sharpen on the resized JPEG.

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[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Diane:wave:

First of all, I just wish to thank you for sharing this most amazing capture! Apart from the beautiful colours and wonderful clarity of those images, this sequence is so unusual in terms of content - my first thought was, the male guarding the female as she was busy laying eggs, and drowning her by applying too much pressure! Well, it looks like he did not know when to stop...An accident? Or perhaps he did have murderous intentions?

This is a captivating story with an ending that leaves me wanting for more, great story telling, Diane! I so enjoyed viewing! Thank you so much, I really appreciate you took the time to pop in here and share something so special with us:5

Kind regards,

[Diane Miller]

Thanks, Gabriella! Maybe they were just ovipositing and too many steroids got into the water here.... They're so small I haven't paid much attention to them as my telephoto lenses don't focus close enough to have enough magnification. The new 100-400 with the 1.4X is another story, though -- it comes close to being a 140-560 macro with 3 ft close focus limit.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Diane, this is an awesome sequence and you did great capturing this!

...and did I mention how much I like that colour blue on the Damselflies? And the reflection is great, too:)

Hope your post will encourage others to participate, so much happening in Nature that we do not know of - and I believe a lot of photographers happen to have amazing sequences in their folders, just never thought of showing them.

I truly enjoyed this, thank you so much:cheers:

Kind regards, have a great evening,

[Alison McCoy]

These are beautiful Diane and such an interesting sequence. When Dragonflies are captured well they make me think of jewelry and these lovely images certainly capture that look for me. :S3:

[Marina Scarr]

That's pretty amazing behavior/action you have captured here, Diane. I wonder if this is normal practice for this species. Love the color of the insects and the clear homicidal behavior you were able to capture.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

What a neat sequence! I love it. I am yet to see anything vaguely similar!