Dragonfly sex is a complicated affair. If you have never studied up on it, I recommend that you do a little reading on the subject. I'm not even going to try to address the whole process here.

These Prince Baskettails (Epitheca princeps) were perched in a bush, trying to be discreet, but I intruded into their "private" time anyway. :)



This particular configuration is the wheel position. The male grasps the female by the head with his abdominal appendages while she sort of docks her reproductive organ with his "accessory genitalia" and sperm is transferred. Different species stay in this configuration for varying lengths of time -- some species even fly while in this position. The mere thought gives me a headache ;)

Our dragonfly list from yesterday: Great blue skimmer, Slaty skimmer, Eastern pond hawk, Blue dasher (a gazillion of these!), Harlequin darner, Swamp darner, Eastern amberwing, Halloween pennant, Carolina saddlebags, and Black saddlebags. We also saw a variety of damselflies, but didn't take the time to ID them.