I spent(wasted...lol) maybe half an hour firing these shots this morning. The story behind it is that this morning I spotted a damselfly larvae crawling out of one of my fishtanks this morning. I had an idea of what was going on, so took it to my room intent on taking pictures. I tried to get it to grasp onto a line in my room...but it was too rigid already. While I was holding it in my fingers in the sun, the bulging skin split and the damsel emerged. I got it to climb up onto the string which draws the drapes. I feel kinda bad that I wasn't able to shoot the molting of the stage when the wing buds just started inflating...it all happened to fast! The first 10 or so pictures were taken around 8 seconds apart from each other(fast the camera could focus, shoot, and the "reload". Due to the green color, I believe this is a female. Others which flew over the pond the damsel came from were black and blue. I think being in a dark aquarium may have delayed her a few days. If I find another larvae, I hope to get a complete sequence. Not a natural setting, but still gives you an how it works. Just pretend the damselfly has just burst from there skin and crawled a few inches up a reed in a pond...
Enjoy!
The wingbuds are just starting to fill with fluid.
As more fluid is pumped in, the buds lengthen at a rapid rate. At this stage, I could observe the fluid pumping in the abdomen like an water bubble.
The wing buds continue to grow. The abdomen is also lengthening.
Halfway, perhaps?
Still going strong!
Almost fully opened.
Just the tips left...
The wingbuds are just starting to fill with fluid.
As more fluid is pumped in, the buds lengthen at a rapid rate. At this stage, I could observe the fluid pumping in the abdomen like an water bubble.
The wing buds continue to grow. The abdomen is also lengthening.
Halfway, perhaps?
Still going strong!
Almost fully opened.
Just the tips left...