Here we start with the exuvia, this is the shell or exoskeleton in which the dragonfly nymph has lived for the last couple of years. The nymphs crawl out of the water and usually attach themselves to a stem of some sort. This is where the remarkable transformation takes place, I captured these images over a period of about 90 min, I have more and it was a little tricky in deciding which ones to put in I would have liked to show an image with the wings full sized but I will but posting other images in the macro section shortly.
The events were captured in my back garden pond, I was becoming increasingly despondent this year, usually mid June they start appearing but nothing happened, then I noticed I had missed one so I watched every day for 10 days - nothing. On the 11th day it rained so I didn't check on the 12th day I soon found I had missed six! Boy was I cheesed off, any how more were to follow. Next I am hoping to capture the adults mating and laying eggs.
Emergence of a southern hawker dragonfly
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