[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=T0Rf8dxRHHs]
There are some 5000 species of dragonflies, broadly spread around the planet. Fossilized records show a wing span of more than 2 feet! Dragonflies are hugely important as an indication of the health of a creek, and last year we noticed an encouraging expansion of them. The young are entirely water dwellers and feast on mosquito larvae (thankyou!). Adults live for only about 2 months, after they emerge from their nymph state, unfold their wings and take to the sky.
Dragon flies have better eyesight than any other insect. Their eyes are massive, and can scan both down for food and up for danger at the same time. They are predators on a mission and are excellent hunters on the aerial serengeti. An adult dragonfly can eat up to 600 insects a day. Many’s the time I’ve rescued a soggy dragonfly from the water in my canoe, and allowed his colorful body to dry out on my knee. It is in these moments that you realize what an alarmingly large BUG the dragonfly is, but I’ve been assured it can’t bite and it never has yet.
Dragonflies wings are independent of each other, which this Attenborough video shows very well. Their long legs can grasp and hold but they cannot walk. Watch a dragonfly when its resting to figure out what family it belongs to. Heavily bodied (or true dragonflies) hold them out to the sides, slender winged damsel flies fold them on their backs. Dragonflies have been studied by everyone from NASA to the Air Force who have been eager to learn how they manage speeds of 60 MPH and then come to a complete stop in mid air.
So far they’ve kept most of their secrets to themselves.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q-7k2HNJpXA]
