Southern hawker dragonflies emerging on a warm autumn morning. The insect has spent at least two years living under the waters of a pond in its juvenile stage, as a nymph. Its last act as a nymph is it crawl up the leaf or stem of a plant into the warm morning air. The skin of the nymph splits along the back. The adult insect emerges, leaving behind the exuvia. It then needs to spend some time warming and drying itself before it is ready to fly.