Rassim Khelifa from the University of Zurich came across an incredible discovery recently. As he was collecting larvae samples in Swiss Alps, he noticed something hilarious about female moorland hawker dragonflies, Aeshna Juncea.
He noticed that when approached by a male dragonfly, female dragonflies fell to the ground and pretend to be lifeless. The unlucky suitor would fly away, and only then would the lady “come back to life”.
Rassim was pretty shocked when he saw this, as he has been studying dragonflies for a decade and he had never seen anything like this before. He conducted a study at the University of Zurich, and he found that 21 of 31 female dragonflies involved faked their own falling to the ground lifeless to avoid the mating process. To add to that, all 21 of the female dragonflies were successful in their attempt, but the rest of them weren’t that lucky as their suitors were into mating anyway.
The female dragonflies don’t stay with their male suitors after the mating. They contort their parts so they connect with their suitor’s parts, they finish the process, and the female dragonfly heads off to lay eggs.
Unfortunately, though, other males may be interested in mating before she manages to lay her eggs, and if they mate, her reproductive tract may be damaged. This is the reason ladies reject their suitors, and this method of rejecting suitors is pretty common in vertebrates and invertebrates.
