232 year old puzzle

[Erland R.N.]

This photo show the male dragonfly of the species Palpopleura portia, which for 232 years was thought to be a form of a similar species P. lucia. Only DNA test have shown a couple of years ago, that they are to be considered to different species.
The male shown here have less black on the wings, compared to the nearly all black wings of its counterpart.

14th Dec. 2006, South Africa.
Canon 5D, sigma 150 + 1.4 x converter
iso 400, f/11, 1/200 sec.

I violated rules (only did once, promise ) of the Kruger National Park in South Africa, left my car for half a minute, and photographed this dragonfly, which was perched a couple of meters from the car. I did get back in the car without being eaten by lions, glad to have a picture, but feeling a bit guilty.

Erland

[JoanYoung]

LOL!! Don't feel guilty Erland, I think we have all done that at one time or the other and as long as you did not get caught or eaten by a lion, it is okay. I was caught one time getting out to take pictures of hippo's, but the guy just gave me a warning, luckily. A beautiful picture and worth getting out for.

[Mike B in OKlahoma]

Erland, the South African embassy is sending a lion over to your house to correct the situation now....Please climb quietly into the lion's mouth when it arrives, rather than making a spectacle of yourself by resisting justice!

I missed out on a great shot once by following the rules. I visited the nest of a loon (an impressively big american bird kind of similar to a goose) and got some nice shots of the mother sitting on her nest. She seemed disturbed, and kept standing up on the nest and prodding the egg under her with her beak. To avoid stressing the mother, I wasn't supposed to stay for more than fifteen minutes, and I followed the rules, thinking that perhaps I was disturbing her even within the fifteen minutes because of her behavior. I came back the next day and the next was abandoned, and I felt awful. I did notice a loon swimming around the lake with a youngster following her about, but I had no way to know if this was "my bird", and I knew I couldn't just assume it.

When I got home, and looked at my pictures on the computer, I could see in the pictures of her standing up on the nest that a hole was being pecked in the egg from inside! Her baby had been hatching! If I'd broken the fifteen minute rule and stayed, I'd have got to see and photograph this! I missed out on a big opportunity, alas. But at least the rule I observed was for the protection of the animals....You only endangered yourself by getting out to shoot this dragonfly! Though we can't forget all the poor overstressed lions who missed out on a good meal!