Green Skimmer

Description:

Orthetrum serapia Watson, 1984. Dragonflies are truly amazing creatures. You just need to watch them for a few seconds and give a little thought to what you have just seen to realise that they must surely be amongst the most effective predators in the natural world. From a resting position on a leaf or flower, they can take to the air at incredible speed. Then, in flight, they can change direction instantaneously. They seem to be able to fly, at maximum velocity, in one direction and then change that direction diametrically like a table-tennis ball hit by a paddle. If there were a jet plane capable of such manoeuvres, it could not be flown by a human pilot. The "G forces" would be fatal. However, dragonflies have another remarkable quality that I was unaware of until I started trying to take pictures of them. We all know that if we are lucky enough to get a snapshot of a dragonfly resting on a small twig, with nothing in the background, except perhaps the sky, it is always a beautiful photo, but if it darts suddenly onto grass or leaf litter, the result can be very different. The first problem is being able to see it so that you can take a photo. It has a great ability to blend, instantly, into a background and even if you can see it, how do you take a picture. What I have tried to show, with my pictures in this spotting, is just how well these creatures can hide. The three images above are all the same photo. The first is enlarged and cropped excessively and it enables us to see the creature (at least, part of it). The second one is less enalrged and we can see more of he dragonfly, but not so clearly. The last photo is just about useless. The whole dragonfly is there, but how could that picture be of any use. The creature just merges into the background too well. So, now I know that if I want to get some useful photos of a dragonfly, I have to ask it to pose on a nice little twig in a clearing with not too much background :-)

Habitat:

Spotted resting on grass growing on a turf dyke (partition and walkway) in the middle of a rice field.