Sunday 28 September 2008

Kinky


Any thoughts on this kinkiness?
First, this is a male Painted Waxtail Ceriagrion cerinorubellum, a relatively common damselfly in my yard.

This cannot be a mating related accident, as then the kink should be downwards.
If you are new to damselfly mating, look at this pair in thier orthodox 'wheel position' where the male is on top.

So, how on earth has the rear end of the body turned upwards in this?
A birth defect caused at the emergence from exuvia—you know, when it tries to force itself out?
I don't know!

Let me know what you think, please.

5 comments:

Pat - Arkansas said...

I've no idea, of course! :) But, excellent photo of an anomaly.

Aside: I like your Enya music.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a hard-on to me!

Amila Salgado said...

Thanks for paying heed to my calls of Agony, Pat. It was feeding when I took this - so I took time with the shot. Glad you liked the music.

Hi Java,
Thank you for that thoughtful insight. Reminded me of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPlRcoYj32c

Doug Taron said...

I have no idea what caused the kinked abdomen- but it's a lovely species. It reminds me of one from Arizona called the desert painted damsel. See here

Amila Salgado said...

Thanks, Doug,
Good to hear the from an Entomologist on this matter.

We have several species like the one you linked above and I will post them in due course.

BTW, click here to see what I call a straight guy. I photographed it today.

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