Before she can do that, other males may show up seeking sex. Evolution predisposes her to resist: She has limited eggs, her reproductive tract can be damaged by repeated copulations, she’s already been inseminated by the mate she chose, and the dragonfly male part is structured so that it removes any sperm present before making a new deposit. So to avoid further se*, she may fall down dead—or more precisely, she may fake death, dropping from the air and lying motionless in the ground cover.
This behavior itself was evolved to protect females against aggressive males but it doesn’t always work. This interesting ordeal was actually caught on film in more recent times as you will see below. The female really dedicated herself to the fake death and remained motionless until the male was finally gone.
It’s pretty interesting how smart these flying insects are. Did you know that dragonflies did this or were you as unaware as I was? Isn’t it fascinating?
