Odonata hoarding food

In the frame of my study of the morphological colour changes and the female polymorphism of adult Ischnura e. elegans, I kept a stock of live Odonata under laboratory conditions. The specimens were kept in open plastic boxes, the wings cut near the nodus, and fed with Drosophila melanogaster, presented to them with a forceps. (B.O.N. H1NNEKINT, 1987, Hydrobiologia. 146; 3-31). Feeding was accompanied by hoarding. The /. elegans specimens were fed once or twice a day only and accepted up to 4 Drosophila specimens at a time. Several prey items were chewed into a single meatball, kept under the mandibles, and slowly ingested afterwards.