Today’s photograph shows a male [with a blue-green body] paired with a female blue-tailed damselfly [with an ocherous body]. The original photograph has been turned around by 90° to the left.
In pairing, the male grasps the female’s prothorax with his terminal abdominal claspers so that the two insects form a chain or a tandem. The female then loops her abdomen forward to bring its tip into contact with the accessory genitalia on the male’s second and third abdominal segments. In this ‘wheel position’ sperm is transferred.
When the female is ready to lay eggs, not long after copulation, the male is still attached to her. The pair flies ‘in tandem’ out over the water where the female crouches on floating vegetation. The female now lowers her rear into the water while the male is still attached to her head by his rear end. In this position, his long body comically sticks up, with his feet clasping in the air.