{"id":29357,"date":"2020-08-12T12:29:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T19:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29357"},"modified":"2020-08-13T07:55:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T14:55:36","slug":"bluet-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29357","title":{"rendered":"Bluet disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Things were now looking good in the world of bluet damselflies. The previous posting, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29335\">thwarted bluets<\/a>, had reported on the problems of bluet couples: harassment and inaccessible aquatic weed for egg laying. However, now the aquatic weed had reached the surface of the water and the mating proceeded apace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But, suddenly: WHOMP!<\/p>\n<p>Bluets were seen perching and mating in many places.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-29359\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/damselfly200811as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>They flew off together to lay the eggs on the aquatic weed. Certainly there was still harassment by single males, but it could be avoided.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29358\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/damselfly200811bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A couple found some suitable weed extending through the surface and proceeded to deposit eggs. The fact that the male is holding the female&#8217;s head below the water looks worrisome to human eyes. However, an insect breathes through spiracles on its thorax and abdomen, not its head.\u00a0<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29361\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/damselfly200811s_SMG.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ten seconds after the previous\u00a0picture, a mallard swam by and WHOMP &#8212; it swallowed everything: bluet couple, eggs and aquatic weed. What a downer. Well, the mallard looks happy.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-29360\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mallard200811s_SMG.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">The final two pictures were taken by Susi Grathwol and are used with permission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Things were now looking good in the world of bluet damselflies. The previous posting, thwarted bluets, had reported on the problems of bluet couples: harassment and inaccessible aquatic weed for egg laying. However, now the aquatic weed had reached &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=29357\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-bugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29357","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=29357"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29388,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29357\/revisions\/29388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}