Parasite of the Blue Dasher

By Pondhawk on July 28, 2022 • ( 0 )

It started with a dropped mite. Literally, a mite dropped onto the book I was reading. Dropped from where I quickly asked? From the dragonfly that had briefly landed on my book. I identified the dragonfly as a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). It is one of the more common dragonflies around this time of the year.

I waited for another or perhaps the same one to fly in to where I was sitting. I took my Pentax K-1 mark ii with a 55-300 lens and a 1.4x multiplier to take these following images. I didn’t have time nor could get close enough to use my 100 mm macro lens. I will attempt to get closer later this week.

The small red dots on the underside of the thorax are parasitic water mites!

I found an interesting article about this parasitism https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2311.1998.00125.x. Some light reading.