Dragons mating

orthetrum sabina sabina

One of the shots that I have been after for a very long time, is an end shot of the head connection. After collecting the safe side shots, I repositioned and managed to fire one shot before they were spooked. Unfortunately I missed the shot by about 1mm. very disappointing, but I will get the shot one day soon.

I cropped in for a closer look. Interesting that the female is only using four of her legs to hold on with, the front two are coiled up in attack mode. When hunting insects on the wing, the dragon attacks a bit like a preying mantis, firing its front legs out to grab the insect.

The scientists tell us that mating between species is not possible because the head connection is different and the bits don't fit. I have my doubts about this and suspect it happens more than people think, but that is just my opinion.

I saw a snake today, but unfortunately it saw me too, so the game was never on. The microstock company rejected a lot of my snake shots for focus problems. The eyes were sharp, what more can you expect. Obviously he has never tried photographing a snake before!

Dave