Southern hawker dragonfly. Close-up of a newly emerged southern hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea) clinging to a dry leaf. Dragonflies show incomplete metamorphosis with no pupal stage in the life-cycle. The larva climbs out from the water splits open and the adult emerges. It then takes several hours for the adult's body and wings to harden, and the brilliant colours of the mature insect to appear. Here the colours are not fully developed, the wings have not fully expanded and their veins still contain blood.