What’s your best excuse to avoid being intimate with your partner? Faking a headache? Well, female dragonflies take the whole game to a different level, and fake their death!

That’s how the moorland hawkers roll. Rassim Khelifa from the University of Zurich came across this incredible discovery. He was collecting larvae samples in the Swiss Alps, and noticed something hilarious about female moorland hawker dragonflies (Aeshna juncea).

Rassim noticed that when approached by a male dragonfly, the ladies fell to the ground. The unlucky suitor would fly away, and the lady would “come back to life.”

The experts was pretty shocked to see this. He’s been studying dragonflies for a decade, and he had never seen anything like this.

Rassim conducted a study at the University of Zurich. His study involved 31 female dragonflies, and guess what… 21 of these ladies faked their death to avoid the mating process. He noticed that 21 female dragonflies were successful in their attempt. The rest of them weren’t that lucky as their suitors were into mating anyway.

Female dragonflies don’t stay with their male suitors after the mating, and they are vulnerable to harassment. Is this behavior unique to these dragonflies?

Experts at National Geographic explain that the moorland hawker dragonfly starts mating with an acrobatic aerial copulation.

The female dragonfly contorts her lady parts so they connect with her suitor’s parts. They create a lopsided heart shape, and land to finish the mating process. Once they are done, he female heads off to lay eggs.

Unfortunately, other males may be interested in mating before the female manages to lay her eggs. She has limited number of eggs, and has already been inseminated. If other male suitors approach her and mate, her reproductive tract may be damaged. That’s why ladies reject their suitors.

The method of rejecting suitors is common in many vertebrates and invertebrates.

Sources:

awarenessact.com

www.nationalgeographic.com

www.newscientist.com

indianapublicmedia.org