[Odonata-l] Damsel eats dragon!

[Erland R. Nielsen]

I've photographed and seen photos of quite many dragonflies eating 
damselflies, dragonflies eating damselflies, and damselflies eating 
damselflies, but never anything like shown. To me it looks like a female 
Lestes sp. has attacked the teneral Sympetrum sp. (my guess on the ID).

I have a similar rare encounter photographed, which could be interesting for 
some to see.
This one showing a male Lestes sponsa trying to form tandem with a female 
Sympetrum danae. It was trying for more than two minutes, before giving up. 
The female had landed before the male arrived, and did not move during the 
"attack".

Here's the picture:
http://home1.stofanet.dk/erland_refling/lesponsa_sydanae.jpg

Erland R.N.
Denmark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "June Tveekrem" <damselfly at southernspreadwing.com>
To: "Odonata-l" <odonata-l at listhost.ups.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Odonata-l] Damsel eats dragon!


> It looks like the dragonfly is teneral, which I'm sure helped the
> damselfly enormously. I, too, can probably figure out genus, but I'm not
> going to venture a guess about species.
>
> June
>
> -- 
> June Tveekrem
> Columbia, Maryland, U.S.
> damselfly|AT|southernspreadwing.com
>
>
>
> Joshua Stuart Rose wrote:
>
> Howdy folks,
>
> Dragonflies eat damselflies all the time. There are a number of
> relatively famous examples of dragons eating other dragons. Damsels
> eating damsels seems less common but far from unheard-of.
>
> But how about a damselfly eating a dragonfly?
> <http://www.glennbartley.com/naturephotography/macro/dragonscanibals.htm>
>
> This photo is the first time I can recall seeing such a situation.
> How many folks have seen, or heard of, this before?
>
> Also: anyone recognize the species involved? I can tell the two
> critters to family, probably genus.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Josh
> _______________________________________________
> Odonata-l mailing list
> Odonata-l at listhost.ups.edu
> https://mailweb.ups.edu/mailman/listinfo/odonata-l