Emerging Emperor Dragonfly

In the past few days at my garden pond in the evenings, I have become aware of a few Emperor Dragonfly nymphs starting to appear in the shallows with the back of their heads out of the water, a sure sign that they are preparing to emerge soon. With a mild night last night with light winds, I felt quite confident that at least one of them might try to emerge so around 21:30, I made my usual trip out to the pond to check and found one of the nymphs well out of the water on a reed. I was soon getting all the equipment ready for a session like this which included camera, tripod, flash diffuser, beanbag and a nice blanket to lay on. I was hoping that soon after that the Emperor would start to emerge but it wasn't until 23:15 that the nymph started to climb higher up the reed and chose its spot from which to emerge. Next was the familiar thrashing of the abdomen to check for any obstructions when emerging followed by a few minutes of stillness as the nymph skin clearly started to show signs of drying out. While this is happening I am watching from a safe distance as to not disturb the nymph as it makes its final preparations before finally moving in slowly and laying down at the pond to start photographing. At 23:26 the nymph started to emerge and this signalled the start of nearly ninety minutes of studying and photographing the stages of emergence. It never ceases to amaze me as the beastly nymph transforms into a winged wonder of nature. Thankfully all went well and just before 1am, the Emperor Dragonfly nymph was fully emerged with its wings pumped up and this was my signal to head to bed after a successful nights work. I would suspect soon after that the Emperor would have made a short flight to the nearest trees for safety where he will mature up before moving on to look to breed. A quick look this morning before work saw no Emperor at the pond and hopefully all went well for the maiden flight. Despite being a little tired this morning, it's always a pleasure to witness one of nature's often unseen miracles in action.

 

Emperor Dragonfly (Anax imperator) - Emerging male