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Sex by my garden pond
PETER FROST investigates the amazing life of the dragonflies visiting his tin bath

I WAS sat by my tiny tin-bath garden pond feeding my fish. A common frog was hiding, but not well, among the pond plants when a spectacular visitor arrived.

I’ve written before about how even a tiny pond attracts wildlife of all sorts into your garden. This new visitor was an electric blue dragonfly.

What an amazing and beautiful animal. Dragonflies are insects in the suborder Anisoptera. The scientific name means “unequal-winged” and it was clear in my new visitor how it got that name.

A dragonfly pair mating (Pic: iwanramawan/Creative Commons)
A giant dragonfly fossil, pictured at the Berlin Natural History Museum (Pic: Public domain)
A damselfly at rest with its wings beside its body (Pic: Charles J Sharp/Creative Commons)
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