Today's pnod moment ...

[perlmonger]

... was a pair of bonking damselflies.

Extraordinary, and fascinating to watch. I borrow a snippet from Howard Ensign Evans' Life on a Little-known Planet:

The actual mating act of Odonata is one of the most bizarre performances to be seen anywhere. Doubtless if a trip to the Kalahari Desert were required to observe it, more publicity would result. But the fact is that a few hours - or even a few minutes - spent in quiet observation by a pond or stream in the summer is all that is needed. [...] There is nothing special about the female. the long, needle-like abdomen merely terminating in the sexual orifice and the egg-laying apparatus. In the male, however, the abdomen terminates in a double set of powerful clasping organs - not unusual in itself until one realises that these organs are not designed for grasping the genital organs of the female but for grasping her neck. [...] Here then is the dilemma: the claspers (and genital opening) of the male are located at his tail end, but this is applied to the neck of the female rather than to her genital opening. The dilemma is solved by the possession, in these and in no other insects, of a special genital pouch beneath the forward segments of the male abdomen - actually well in front of the middle of the body. Here one finds a jointed penis and a variety of hooklike appendages associated with a sac that has no connection with the testes at all. Thus the male must fill these secondary genital organs, which he does by making a loop of his abdomen, applying the tip briefly to the underside of the base, and permitting sperm to enter the sac at the base of the penis. In damselflies, the sac is often filled after the male has grasped the female, but most dragonfly males are "loaded" before they pair with a female.

The act of copulation is initiated by the male following slightly above the female, then seizing her thorax with his legs. At this point, if the female is receptive, she flies slowly and allows herself to be carried. The male then makes a loop of his abdomen and grasps the female in the neck region with his claspers. He then lets go with his legs, straightens his abdomen, and flies ahead, carrying the female in tandem. The female then normally makes a loop downward and forward with her abdomen and applies her genital opening to the genital sac of the male. This is called the "wheel position," since in fact the two form a loop, the female mostly upside-down beneath the male. The pair may remain together for anywhere from three seconds up to an hour or more, but all species that require more than a few seconds copulate while perched.

Comments

[lproven.livejournal.com]

It's already on my wishlist! :¬)

Anarchists? OIC. I have much interest in politics as I do in cattle butchery, which is to say, less than none at all.