Saturday, March 28, 2009

Almost There.........

Larval emergence is a critical process. Some odonate species prefer to emerge in the night while the others are quite comfortable having it during day time. However, not all the emergences are successful. I spotted this dragonfly (Ictinogomphus decoratus) half covered in its casing without sight of life. I guess the emergence started at least six hours earlier, and for some reasons the process of emergence was terminated half way, and the dragonfly naturally died in its casing. I was staring at the half buried dragonfly in its casing for a long while thinking the struggling it had to go through before giving up......... yes, it was almost there, but.........