The Intimate Lives of Dragonflies

There are about 3,000 species of dragonflies in the world, and they inhabit the entire planet with the exception of Antarctica. They have not changed much since they flew on their webbed wings over the Carboniferous swamps of what is now Europe, more than three hundred million years ago. Well, okay, their wingspan is no longer a mighty 70 centimeters, but the basic design has remained the same. And why change something that works so perfectly?

Dragonflies are fearsome hunters in both the water and the air. The hunting strategy of their aquatic larvae is more like a tiger hunting from ambush, but once they’re adults, they become small, acrobatic combat helicopters. Eyes composed of up to 30,000 tiny ommatidia detect their prey, which is typically a small insect like a mosquito (another reason to love dragonflies).

A tiny but powerful brain can then predict its flight path and determine a blind spot from which to approach undetected. Four wings, independently powered by strong thoracic muscles, then catch up with unsuspecting prey. It is, to our knowledge, the most successful hunter in the animal kingdom.

Flying is second nature to adult dragonflies, and they do much more than simply catch prey in midair. They eat in flight, and they even mate and lay eggs in midair. This last part is pretty unique; some birds, such as swifts, also mate in flight, but even for them egg-laying is a rather static affair.

Adult dragonfly life spans are usually only a few months, so a romantic honeymoon would be a foolish waste of time. For the male dragonfly, mating is more like a hunt than anything else. Their mating process is as follows:

First, the male relocates sperm from near the tip of his tail to the second segment of his abdomen (underneath the wing area). He then grabs his prey – sorry, his mate – behind the head with special claspers on the rear of its tail, as shown in the photo above. In the act of mating itself, the female bends under the male to connect to the male’s abdomen, creating a beautiful, somewhat asymmetrical heart as shown below.

Finally, resembling a strange biplane, the future parents fly off to lay their eggs. Dragonflies are exceptionally unique in being able to fly in a coordinated manner while mating, leading to some truly unique photos (as long as you don’t mind feeling a bit voyeuristic).

Some species lay just below the water surface, others on aquatic plants or in moss near the water. There are also species in which the female submerges completely and embarks on a dangerous mission below the water’s surface without the help of the mate. For obvious reasons, the males of most dragonfly species guard the female closely, even during egg laying.

Not so with Aeshna juncea, though. For them, immediately after mating, they set out to find another female to mate with. This, of course, is not always desired by the females – but if they’re not interested, they have an interesting strategy to prevent it. When the female sees an all-too-eager male nearby, she simply fakes her own death and falls to the ground. The seemingly dead female is no longer attractive to the male, so he flies off to find one in better condition.

Some Tips for Photographing Dragonflies

If dragonflies are your subjects, then an ordinary puddle behind your house can be the stage for great dramas, tragedies, and romantic outbursts. However, photographing them is not always easy. Hopefully the following tips help.

First, when observing or photographing dragonflies, you will soon discover that there are certain regularities in their behavior. Dragonflies have favorite perches from which they search for or consume their prey. Often these are dry twigs or blades of grass above the water. Find the favorite perch, sit down, and wait.

When dragonflies lay their eggs in the water, they are very interesting to photograph. For reflections in the water, place your camera just above the surface. A sturdy tripod that can support the camera is very useful for this purpose. A gimbal head is invaluable so you don’t drown your precious gear the moment you take your hands off it. Experiment with light direction, water reflections, backlighting, and background.

Which lens to choose? It depends. In early morning, dragonflies are often perched on a plant, stiff from the night’s chill. You can approach them pretty closely without scaring them away. At those times, even a wide-angle macro lens (such as the Laowa 15mm f/4 Macro) is possible.

However, a classic macro lens (like the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 MC if you shoot with the Nikon Z system) is usually a good starting point. This will allow you to capture close-ups of the dragonfly if it’s staying still, while still standing a little farther back.

Once the morning sun rises, life quickly pours into the dragonflies – and with it, caution and shyness. During the daytime, the best lenses are longer telephotos with plenty of working distance, but a high magnification. A 400mm lens or so is ideal.

Probably the best “dragonfly” lens currently made by Nikon is the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6. Its minimum focusing distance is 75cm (0.38x magnification), which is sufficient for medium and large dragonfly species. Another great choice is the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3, which has even more magnification at 0.5x. On a budget, Nikon’s 28-400mm f/4-8 is also surprisingly good for dragonfly photography thanks to a magnification of 0.35x. (Read more here about magnification if you aren’t familiar; generally, I recommend at least 0.25x magnification for dragonfly photography.)

Because of the long minimum focusing distance, it is a bit complicated to use prime exotics, like I discussed in an article last week. Unfortunately, you cannot just add an extension tube to these lenses, because extension tubes have less and less of an effect on longer focal length lenses. However, you could use a teleconverter, which multiplies your magnification by the teleconverter’s factor. (For example, a so-so 0.25x magnification becomes an impressive 0.5x magnification if you use a 2x teleconverter.)

And that’s it in a nutshell. The time for photographing the intimate life of dragonflies is slowly running out as summer fades. None of those now fluttering over the placid surface of ponds and rivers will survive the winter. Only their voracious offspring surviving in the water will ensure the continuity of life. But the remaining adult dragonflies are probably somewhere near the water right now, experiencing their lives until their last breaths. Take your camera and go photograph them.