Thursday 8 September 2011

One rule for her...

Teneral Common Darter (female) "obelisking" into the sun
Here's a pic from last month's visit to Wicken Fen, just to remind me what it was like when the sun was shining.

This is a teneral (immature) lady Common Darter dragonfly, roosting on a fence rail because it's nice and warm. However, she's also stopping herself from becoming too hot by pointing her abdomen at the sun, thereby reducing her surface area exposed to the heat, in a process termed "obelisking". Whilst I have mentioned this term previously on Imperfect and Tense, I just wanted an excuse to post a reasonably crisp odo shot.

I suspect that if I tried this method of thermo-regulation, all I would get are rosy cheeks and a caution from the local constabulary.

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