I appear to have run out of Sunday in which to write about bugs. No matter, I think I have a photo that'll more than make up for a lack of words on my part.

Face to to face with one of the orange dragonflies that spent their days zooming over (and, in this case, falling into) the swimming pool at our house in Vanuatu.

and the close up

That's all from me today (I have to get back to writing about statistics and land snail gut contents, which is actually surprisingly interesting),if you're a fan of these beautiful bugs theres a couple of posts about dragonfly's closest cousins the damselflies here.

Labels: Anisoptera, dragonfly, environment and ecology, Odonata, photos, sci-blogs, vanuatu

This week's Sunday Spinelessness is dedicated to those people who wash up at this post after googling for "Austrolestes colensonis" only to be disappointed. At the time I wrote that post on our damselflies I didn't have a photo of the the New Zealand Blue Damselfly, let me correct that now. A full body shot:

And a close up:

These photos were taken at Fensham Reserve in the Wairarapa. We walked through the bush there on a bright summer's afternoon and every time we passed a break in the canopy we found a little flight of Austrolestes basking in the sun. The reflective wings were beautiful, but, as you're about to see, not easily photographed:

Labels: Austrolestes colensonis, damselflies, environment and ecology, might interest someone, Odonata, photos, sci-blogs, sunday spinelessness, Zygoptera

It's been a bit of a wintry Sunday here in Dunedin so I'll dedicate today's round of Sunday Spinelessness to a group of insects we should see a lot more of as summer takes hold, the Damselflies (Odonata:Zygoptera).

Labels: damselflies, insects, might interest someone, Odonata, sci-blogs, sunday spinelessness, Zygoptera