bobkiely wrote:

While I was out looking at my greening lily leaves, one of my favorite
creatures came flying by and landed on the cattail fronds. This is a
magnificent specimen as his body is about 1/2" wide and about 3" long and is
the brightest organgish-red you can imagine. He looks like he just came from
the paint shop and somebody has been waxing him for hours.

I've been looking for a photograph of him or his species for a 1/2 hour on
the www and nothing I found comes close to the color of this guy.

The other day when I was out there, he was there and a smaller miniature
version of him was there also...this one was a brilliant indigo blue.
I think that's a damsel fly. You can tell the difference by how their wings
are when they land. Dragonflies hold their wings perpendicular to their
body, damsel flies pull theirs in parallel.

One of the reasons I went to the internet before was to see if I could find
any data on the life cycle of dragon flies as I know this will sound stupid
but there was an exact replica of this guy who frequented my pond last year.
Couldn't be the same one could it? Remember, I'm in southern California - no
freezing allowed here. (At least at my elevation.)

I live in San Diego. The odds are that it is not the same one. I've been
pulling nymphs out of my skimmer all winter and spring and putting them in a
stiller portion of my pond. I refuse to admit what I have done to help them
get along. They are so gorgeous, aside from being useful. Yesterday I had a
red one like you describe and also a larger green one that was laying eggs.

Gotta love the pond
Joe



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