Common Baskettail dragonfly (male, in flight)

A Common Baskettail (Epitheca cynosura) was spotted on 14 May 2016 at Enchanted Pond, Meadowood Recreation Area, Fairfax County, Virginia USA. This individual is a male, as indicated by its terminal appendages. Notice the male’s bright blue-green eyes in the preceding photo. It’s easy to see why Common Baskettail is a member of the Emerald Family of dragonflies!

Enchanted Pond is relatively small. The shoreline seemed to be subdivided into imaginary segments of valuable real estate; each segment was patrolled by a single male Common Baskettail dragonfly. There were frequent aerial skirmishes when one male strayed into the territory of another. During nearly an hour of observation, I never saw one of the males land. Talk about stamina!

Tags: Common Baskettail dragonfly, Emerald Family, Enchanted Pond, Epitheca cynosura, in flight, male, Meadowood Recreation Area, terminal appendages, wildlife photography

This entry was posted on May 17, 2016 at 4:00 am and is filed under Aperture, Canon 580EX Speedlite, digital photography, dragonflies, natural science, Panasonic DMC-FZ150. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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