Is The Damselfly's Mate a Knightfly?

I loved the dragonflies and 'sewing needles,' as we called them as kids. It really wasn't until recently when I was in the E.L. Rose Conservancy's photo contest (ww.elrose.org) that I found out that the 'sewing needles' were called damselflies. Someone had taken a picture of one. I'm sure I've taken at least three pictures of the same, and even entered one long ago at the Harford Fair, not knowing its name.

To us children, the dragonflies were harmless, but the sewing needles would sew up your mouth if you swore. See, back in the 1940s we too had our urban (or rural) legends. It would be so tempting to swear just to see if that impossible threat was true. A child likes danger (did I say 'child'?) as the thrill of getting close to the edge of endangering oneself gives one a 'rush.'

This morning I saw an all black 'sewing needle.' Thinking the damselfly comes only with a bright metallic turquoise body, I figured this was a different kind of 'fly.' Then, to my amazement, a damselfly buzzed it--like a car would almost scrape another to challenge to a drag race. I thought, "Hmm, she doesn't like other sewing needles in her airspace." They then began a 'catch me if you can' game of tag. I thought it's either going to end up in a fight, or she'll scare the other off. But no... the tail of the damselfly caught the black one right where the head joins the thorax... the nape of its neck, if they had necks. Then I realized that either the damselfly is the male, and the other is the 'dame' or female... the black one. I looked it up and the female is the less brightly colored.

Watching this I almost said out loud, "Oh, they are fu....., Oops, they are 'mating'... [Didn't want them to sew up my mouth]. ;-)
[Forgive me... I was just being funny!]

In wanting to take their pictures... first this new black damselfly; then both battling in the air, and then when they settled on a bush, mating, I guess I made them nervous. Something strange happened. Those flies can fly while mating, and flew off the bush and settled on my back. I thought they were going to spend the day on my back, and I tried to get them to fly again by going close to an object as tall as my back. I couldn't see them without my camera on them and leaning my head forward to catch the view of them on my back... and snapped a picture with the sign/object that was back level. A sign that prohibited everything else on the property except mating... of course, that would be after trespassing, wouldn't it?. They then took off on different courses... with smiles on their faces, I'm sure.

The reason I thought they may be at it for hours is because I had a friend in Endwell, N.Y., Nancy. We were telephone buddies when we needed adult conversation as our children were young at the time. She called me one day and talked about these mating bugs on her dining room window the day before. She was trying to do her housework, and it bothered her--each time she went through that room they were still at it all afternoon. She said, "When Ralph came home from work I told him about those bugs, and he could see I was angry. He told me I should have gone outside and shooed them away. I told him it wasn't the point. They were there all afternoon!! 'So what,' he says back to me. I said, They were there mating for hours, and you can't last five minutes?!"