Mating

Here the blue male and emerald green female of the Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) are mating. Mating is the most important behavioural element in reproduction. The mating of dragonflies takes place in a unique way, the so-called dragonfly wheel, in which the two partners connect together and can even fly. The wheel can only come about because the males have an additional copulatory organ on the front abdomen, the so called ‘secondary genitalia’. This is where the male will transfer his sperm to from the sexual organ at the rear end before mating can commence. Once this is done the female in tandem (as shown in the photograph above), bends her sexual opening to make connection with the male’s secondary genitalia and receive his sperm. But that’s not all. What happens in the bodies of the damselflies and dragonflies during mating has led to a scientific sensation.