Praying

Praying as she hung there that she would survive; looking at the situation I was doubtful.

In our garden pond three more emperors had emerged but this one just hadn't flown early. At first I thought that it was a late emergence but actually if you look at the picture you can see something is very wrong.

She hasn't been able to climb out of her exuvial coat. If you look really closely you can see she hasn't got her eyes out of the shell which is sticking into them preventing her emergence. Although she wanted to get away as she fluttered her wings at me she couldn't. A sad situation. I had to leave her after I moved her to flatter ground on the pond and she wasn't there when I returned. I've no idea. I have theories but ...