No Jacket Required
or
If Leaving Me is Easy - Coming back is Downright Impossible

A week or so back I was lucky enough to witness the emergence of a Broad Bodied Chaser Dragonfly. What made the experience even more special, was how close I was able to get to the event - because, this particular little miracle, took place in a tiny pond, inset in a wall, outside the centre buildings of our local nature reserve (HESC).

Our Hero - Lets call him Phil (well he's not a hairy dragonfly) - climbs out of the pond on a reed stem. Phil is still a Larva (or Nymph if you are an angler). There's no going back, Phil's spiracles are now open, he has started to breath air directly from the atmosphere. But seriously, if he falls back into the water he may drown. Phil wiggles his body and legs about - he can dance - he does this to ensure he has a firm grip on the reed stem and there is enough room around him for what is to come.

Phil pumps fluid into his thorax causing it to swell, a rip has started to appear in the back of his jacket (cuticle). This is going to take some time, you can't hurry, love.

Phil pushes his head and thorax out through the tear in his jacket, he is lucky, sometimes the cuticle does not split open enough and the adult dragonfly becomes trapped and dies.

Almost free, Phil hangs from what is to become his exuvia (larva case), he needs his legs to harden so that he can climb completely free from his former self.

Against all odds, he's completely free from his larval skin, now he must inflate his wing buds by pumping fluid into them.

 

A bit green still, but Phil's wings are almost completely inflated - he will be in the air tonight. The next step is to divert the fluid back into his abdomen and extend his body to it's full size.

 

 

All that remains now is for Phil to flick open his wings and dance into the light 

 

 

At this point I will confess that as the process above, has already taken over three hours, rather than wait another hour for Phil to complete his hardening process and take flight. I have included a picture of a female BBC that obligingly sat in a bush beside us whilst Phil performed his metamorphosis.

 

My abiding memories of the day are, how wonderful nature's everyday events are when you get the chance to see them in detail, and how damned difficult macro-photography is. I think my success rate on the day was about one in five, but I shall continue to persevere and gratefully take advice from those far more expert than myself.