photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Yvonne Merriam | all galleries >> Odonata Master Gallery >> Dragonflies ~ Anisoptera >> Emeralds ~ Corduliidae > Baskettail Eggs
previous | next
MAY 2010 © YMerriam

Baskettail Eggs

Three Rivers WMA, Lysander, NY

Unlike other odonates who oviposit by tapping their terminal appendages on the water's surface or submerging their abdomens to lay eggs in vegetation, I witnessed a baskettail species female using an entirely different method. She carries the egg sac in her ovipositor at her terminal appendages and flies quickly and very low above the water and drops and drags the eggs across it's surface, "writing" these squiggly lines of fertilized baskettail eggs!

Sony DSLR-A300 ,Sigma APO 400mm Tele Macro f/5.6
Sigma APO EX DG 2x Teleconverter full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
comment | share