Wideangle Dragonflies

In my recent post about the emergence of Four-Spotted Chaser dragonflies I mentioned that I also took a number of 'wideangle' images of the actual emergence. These were taken with my Tokina 35mm macro lens (this lens was also discussed in a recent post) which is a great lens for showing insects in their environment.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

The sequence starts just as the dragonfly emerges from the exuvia:

its wings quickly begin to expand:

after an hour or so its wings have fully expanded and the colour and patterning on the thorax and abdomen are now almost fully developed.

That's the end of what is a quite remarkable transformation. In many ways it's mind blowing just how this adult dragonfly has developed from the aquatic nymph.  The complexity of the wing structure, as shown in the image above, is itself astonishing and all the more so when you consider that these wings were tightly folded within the aquatic nymph!

All images taken with a Canon 7D and Tokina 35mm macro lens.