Cherry faced skimmer dragonfly

Sexual dimorphism within dragonflies

As a child, I used to throw small stones into the air and watch with glee as nearby dragonflies would chase after its plummetting form.  The allure of these amazing insects did not stop there; the aerial aerobics and other antics kept me transfixed for hours at a time.  Even as an adult pushing past sixty years, I still find them mesmerizing.

I came across these red (male) and yellow (female) dragonflies earlier this summer while visiting a pond east of Edmonton, Alberta.  The warm spring day produced the perfect conditions for many insect species.  Males and females darted through the air searching for prey and looking for mates.

The cherry-faced meadowhawk is a smaller dragonfly.  The males are a deep red in colour with black underparts.  Females and juveniles are yellow.  Both damselflies and dragonflies breed in the same manner.  The male has a pair of claspers at the terminal end of their abdomen.  With it they grasp the female either on the head in dragonflies or on the pronotum (1st section of the thorax) in damselflies.  

A dragonfly male's ability to form a strong connection with the female is impressive; many observations have been made of females having part of their head crushed in.  The injury does not seem to prevent the pair from successfully reproducing.  The pair forms a circle of sorts with the female's ovipositor curved and attached to the male's lower abdomen.  The shape of the pair is commonly called a mating wheel.

The exact procedure of mating varies within the family.  Some mating wheels last for only a minute while others may last for hours.  Similarly, females may lay eggs individually or in tandem with their affixed partner.  Eggs are deposited on the water's surface or may be glued to a plant to await an increase in water levels.  The young, called a naiad, is itself another fascinating aspect of the Odonata order.

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