| After emerged from nymph and attained its aerial form, the fresh
dragonfly spends a short period away from the water and matures sexually.
This period may ranges from a few days to a couple of weeks. During this time, the body and wings harden, and the color becomes more vibrant. The males of some species undergo dramatic color changes during this period. This is also a period of high mortality. How long does a Neurothemis fluctuans dragonfly takes to get matured ? I tried to get a precise answer from this young male Neurothemis fluctuans. A small patch of short bush in my back yard has been a roosting place for newly emerged Neurothemis fluctuans from the near by drains. Every day I could see one or several young immature dragonflies rest on the tip of the plants. I also wanted to keep a record of how a pale immatured dragonfly matured into a vibrant color adult by snapping an photo each day. But the difficulty is there are several of them with the similar size and color and I just unable to keep track of which is which. In early July this year, I saw a unique fresh male Neurothemis fluctuans and I could reconize him each day because of his unique birth mark on the wings - 2 white shinninf dots. Begining 3 July 2007 I begain snapping images of him each day if I could find him. There were in between several days he was not around. The last day I took a photo was on 16 July 2007. And after that day I didi not see him again. |
