Gradual Changes and Decisive Moments (video)

 

Changes and Decisive Moments

Walking through the wetland Tuesday morning (6/15) a little before 8am I was surprised to find three meadowhawks still early in the process of emerging as dragonflies (the process is known as "eclosion" or "eclosure") since normally this seems to take place in earlier morning hours.  I grabbed my tripod and began capturing some of the process. The first emerging dragonfly I began videoing sadly met an unfortunate end. After about an hour of videoing I saw that it was making no progress and turned my camera on the dragonfly above. Later in reviewing the video of the first dragonfly, the one that failed to emerge, I saw that it started well but then was attacked by ants which apparently effectively neutralized it and it died in process!

The video above has a happier ending. It is a 29 second video showing a series of 5 second excerpts taken over the course of a little more than two and half hours. This captures the gradual development of its coloration as the exoskeleton hardens as well as the decisive moments when the wings are spread for the first time and then later takes its first flight. A creature that lived at the bottom of a pond now has wings and knows how to use them!


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