Red dragon

One of the things that make dragonflies so attractive is their colour polimorphism. Colour transition occurs during sexual maturation of the adult dragonfly, the color polymorphisms is largely genetically controlled and involves pigments such as melanins, ommochromes, and pteridines. This morning I found only dragons that were red from the tail to the eyes and lips, some appeared almost as if they had a lighted lantern inside their tail! In the red dragonflies, both males and females are yellow in the immature adult stage, and only males turn red upon sexual maturation. It has been shown that the shades of red color is primarily determined by the redox states of the ommochrome pigments and may have additional benefit of protecting them against UV radiation stress.