Blue-eyed hook-tailed dragonfly

Onychogomphus uncatus

''Onychogomphus uncatus'', the large pincertail or blue-eyed hook-tailed dragonfly, is a species of dragonflies belonging to the family Gomphidae.

This dragonfly is bigger and rarer than the small pincertail. It is present in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.
Ecdysis - emergence of a dragonfly After a few moults, or ecdysis - moulting of the cuticle in invertebrates - a new (re)born dragonfly slowly emerges from its last exuviae... during its emergence haemolymph is pumped throughout the entire body especially to the wings, which causes them to expand to their full extend. This series were captured during the field work for the IUCN red List, and just for a brief short, because there's never enough time to spend on this observations :) https://www.jungledragon.com/image/87202/ecdysis_-_emergence_of_a_dragonfly.html EXIF: Zenit Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 M42 | 12mm extension | Handheld Blue-eyed hook-tailed dragonfly,Onychogomphus uncatus,anisoptera,biodiversity,dragonfly,edysis,insecta,insects,metamorphosis,odonata,summer

Appearance

The adults grow up to 65 millimetres long and can be encountered close to running water and lakes from mid April through late August. The eyes of ''Onychogomphus uncatus'' are widely separated and bright-blue or gray-blue eyes, never green. The front black line on the side of the thorax does not touch the midline. The yellow collar at the front of the thorax is interrupted by a black bar. It has four cells on the anal triangle of the rear wing, but no yellow line on the 'vertex'. Cercoids are always yellow. Their life cycle lasts about three years.

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderOdonata
FamilyGomphidae
GenusOnychogomphus
SpeciesO. uncatus
Photographed in
Portugal