Art of the Damsel

Photo by Marty Horowitz 12/3/2015

Looking like abstract art, a Great Spreadwing couple. 

Fred Heath reveals that the Great Spreadwing doesn't deposit her eggs in water. He writes:

They are generally common in Sabino late in the year, but I’ve never seen so many as were along the creek above the dam. Lots were sitting in overhanging branches in tandem. I kept watching to see them oviposit in the water, without success. I have since found out why. According to Dennis Paulson (Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West), they lay eggs "in leaf petioles or stems of herbaceous or woody plants, sometimes well above the water (perhaps highest known odonate oviposition at 44 feet above water)." The newly hatched larva then "….leaps and flips about until it gets to the water…" Who knew!!

Now you know, too!

Click on this link for more photos, including of a female ovipositing on a leaf.