A while back, while sitting in the kayak on one of my local kayak outings and waiting for some wildlife to appear, I looked to my side and saw this pair of of Eastern Pondhawk Dragonflies (Erythemis simplicicollis) in the act of mating on a nearby American Lotus leaf. Couldn’t help but chuckle … looked like the female (with green abdomen) is doing pull-ups, using the male’s (with blue abdomen) tail as a pull-up bar! This is one of the cool things about nature … you can never predict what you will seen when you venture out!
The Eastern Pondhawk females and newly-emerged males have green and dark brown/black bodies. Mature males are blue. The males change color, starting at the abdomen, then progressing forward until they mature into a solid blue color.