Geoff Dicker sent me the following observations:
"Just to let you know that a late afternoon walk along the Avon at Whaddon on Monday 1st June produced :-
3 Scarce Chasers (2 male and one female)
1 Emperor
Many White-Legged Damselfly, Banded and Beautiful Demoiselle.
Most of the activity was around the large patched of nettles opposite Monkton House either side of the bridge. As a relative newcomer to "dragon" watching I observed some interesting behaviour involving an Emperor dragonfly seemingly being mobbed by Banded Demoiselles similar to the mobbing of birds of prey by smaller birds. Is this regular behaviour I wonder?"
This mobbing behaviour is something I've only observed from larger dragonflies such as 4-spotted Chasers and Black-tailed Skimmers. Has anyone else noticed this from Demoiselles or other damselflies?
I've never seen Calopteryx splendens mobbing a larger species, but Red eyed Damselflies can be pretty agressive, yes. Anax imperator and other large aeshnidae can have a hard time finding a good spot to lay eggs when there's many of them. I don't think this is the mobbing behavior of "preys" chasing a potential "predator", just territoriality.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of it like that Geeko, you could well be right. Possibly some sort of auto-response [potentially suicidal!?]
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