Failed emergence
2nd August 2008, SaturdayOver the past few months about 3000 dragonfly exuviae covering eight species have been collected on the reserve, for the first time this morning I came across an adult that had failed to successfully break out. The picture below shows a Migrant Hawker with all its head and a small part of the thorax showing. An examination of the exuvia found that the skin had failed to split along the the top of the thorax at the back of the head, but despite this fatal flaw the emergence sequence had continued.
