{"id":2751,"date":"2011-09-03T08:32:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T15:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2011-09-03T09:44:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T16:44:26","slug":"sex-in-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=2751","title":{"rendered":"Sex in the park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Warning<\/span>. As they say in the movies: mature theme, graphic scenes.<\/p>\n<p>Dragonflies abound in the marsh at Grohman Narrows Provincial Park: many species, many individuals. All seem to have one thing on their minds: procreation. Out of all that activity, one species is featured here: the Striped Meadowhawk. (Others will appear in a subsequent posting).<\/p>\n<p>Dragonflies (and damselflies) mate in the wheel position. The male grasps the back of the female\u2019s head using claspers at the tip of his abdomen. She swings the tip of her abdomen up below him to receive sperm. After mating, they revert to the tandem position whereby he continues to hold her head and accompany her as she flies around dropping eggs.<\/p>\n<p>A male Striped Meadowhawk poses for a portrait on a dried leaf. It is named for the white stripes on its thorax.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2752\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawkstriped110831ds.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Those white stripes are more evident in this profile view. It is easier to find and photograph solitary males than solitary females. The males hang around the water\u2019s edge waiting for females. As soon as a female appears, a male approaches her and copulation begins.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2753\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawkstriped110831as.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"719\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Striped Meadowhawks are copulating on the grass. They are in the wheel position. The male (red) is holding onto the grass with his legs and holding onto the female (brownish) by the back of her head with his claspers. She is holding his abdomen with her legs, and\u00a0has swung her abdomen up under him to receive his sperm.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2754\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawk110831as.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From behind, one can see the male\u2019s claspers holding the female\u2019s head.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2757\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawkstriped110831es2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These Striped Meadowhawks are copulating in midair. This was a rather difficult picture to take as they didn\u2019t hang in one spot, but drifted around rapidly during their rather vigorous activity.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2755\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawk110831bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The same couple is now flying in the tandem position while she drops the fertilized eggs on the ground. The eggs are visible at the tip of her abdomen.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2756\" onmousedown=\"return false\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/meadowhawkstriped110841cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warning. As they say in the movies: mature theme, graphic scenes. Dragonflies abound in the marsh at Grohman Narrows Provincial Park: many species, many individuals. All seem to have one thing on their minds: procreation. Out of all that activity, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=2751\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2772,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}