This guy have been greeting me every morning for over a week now. And I am quite certain he has made his home among the ferns, one of many among the potted plants in front of my window.
Whenever the sun comes up early in the morning, he'll come out and bask in the sun.
Sometimes I disturb him from slumber when I am watering the plants early in the morning and he'll then perch nearby on a twig or leaf to watch me and wait for me to finish. He lets me get within inches of him.
It is an immature male of the Neurothemis fluctuans. You can see the distinctive pattern on its wings though the colour of its wings is still a light brown tint.
Over the days, his colouration has become richer and darker as he grows into an adult. The above pictures were taken on 19 September 2009.
This morning I had the chance to take another photo of him.
In five days, his colour has turned to a darker brown. He is growing up fast and will soon reach maturity. And then, he will fly away to an area with water, probably the nearby padi fields, to stake his territory and begin looking for a mate.
Dragonflies often bask in the sun early in the morning as they need warmth for activity and during the day they maintain a certain internal temperature, which is quite high at approximately 43°C (or 110°F). When morning breaks, the cold dragonfly has to prepare itself to get started for the day. It will shiver its wings to create heat or stay perched in the sun until its thorax is warmed up enough to take flight for it to begin feeding and mating.
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