Acrobats

It was another one of those wonderful warm evenings, perfect for cooking and eating outdoors. I was alternately savoring the salmon and grilled zucchini and looking into Mr. S's eyes when I spotted these damselflies over his shoulder. Gone were all thoughts of dinner and human romance. There was bug love to be observed, complicated by tragedy: these creatures, in the grip of one another, were themselves gripped by this single spider thread. Their opposing wings had become glued to the web, and no contortions could set them free. God knows they tried.

Or maybe they just were taken up with the mating thing and didn't notice their wings. We watched them for close to half an hour as they whirred and spun and tried to maneuver their parts to the correct position (each one needs to grasp the other's back end). By the time the sun was going down they still hadn't achieved what they were after, and they looked exhausted.

Here is another angle.