[Odonata-l] Odd behavior by damselfly

[jt_johnson@comcast.net]

Though I don't necessarily think it's the case with this Enallagma and Anax, I 
have once seen a male Argia vivida apparently try to go into tandem with a 
female Octogomphus specularis. I described this incident in a short piece called 
"Love Bites" in Argia 19(4). In this case the male Argia repeatedly flew to the 
thorax area of the female Octogomphus while she rested on a log and during its 
last attempt I noticed that it curved its abdomen down and forward as though it 
was trying to make contact. Each time the Argia made a pass at the Octomphus, 
she would fly up and chase him away, then return to the log. On his third or 
fourth attempt she flew up, caught him and devoured him after landing in a 
nearby alder (hence the title of the note).

In the case of the Enallagma and Anax, it appears to me that he simply found a 
perch to land on since he is so far back on the abdomen.

Jim



Dennis Paulson wrote:

Bruce,

I think the speculation in the article is only that. Male odonates  
are amazingly prone to try to mate with species of odonates other  
than their own, and this is very true for Enallagma (I assume the  
species here is E. cyathigerum), but I would have thought a female  
Anax imperator would be too large to offer such a stimulus. Most  
mismatched mating attempts are with species no more than 20% smaller  
or larger than the male of the pair. An ovipositing female can be  
quite still, so perhaps it just offered a perch site, and when the  
male Enallagma landed on it, it twitched in response, and the  
damselfly lifted off again. If it really was a mating attempt, those  
British damselflies are more desperate and/or confused than I would  
have thought possible.

Dennis

On Jul 21, 2008, at 6:46 AM, Bruce Grimes wrote:

> Hi,
> A friend just sent this to me.  I have my doubts on the theories
> expressed for the  behavior.  Anyone have other thoughts?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6xxsw8
>
> Bruce Grimes
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailweb.ups.edu/pipermail/odonata-l/attachments/20080724/84a62108/attachment.html