In front of my house I have a very small lake, when the weather is nice I sometimes sit down by the water and just relax. Last time I did I took my camera with me because there are always dragonflies around when I’m hanging out there. Sadly I wasn’t able to catch the beautiful green metallic color with my camera, but I think they turned out pretty good anyway.
- There were huge dinosaur dragonflies that lived 300 million years ago. (fact – the largest fossil found had a 2 ½ foot wingspan, and currently there are dragonflies in Costa Rica that measure 7 ½ inches across the wings.)
- A dragonfly’s eyes have about 30,000 lenses and a dragonfly can see all the way around it, but they don’t see details very well.
- From the time a dragonfly egg hatches, it can live anywhere from six months to six years, but only about two months as an actual dragonfly.
- Dragonflies catch their insect prey by grabbing it with their feet.
Very Much Dutch 
I love dragonflies! My eventual next and probably last tattoo will be of one. If I can find ink that replicates those blues and greens…
I love them too! but they make me feel a bit icky when they come too close. 😛
Ah, now – they won’t hurt ye and you’d have to try hard to squish them!
I always thought they can sting you pretty bad!
Not at all- no sting. They can bite, however – but it’s just cutting edges like teeth, no poison.
Oooh! That changes everything! 😉
Really? You were afraid of dragonflies? 🙂 Actually, the only thing I’m concerned is that they don’t hit me in the face. They fly really fast, and their path seem erratic. It seems that they overspeed but don’t see a thing in front of them. So what if my face is at the wrong place, at the wrong moment? Alright, I’m not really scared of that, I love watching them fly around. They’re fun to watch. 🙂
Not that afraid as I am for wasps! But I always thought they could sting, so I always made sure never to get too close. 🙂
Now go and catch some and play with them 🙂
I thought it was generally known that dragonflies were inoffensive. But I learned something too, I didn’t know they ate other bugs. I thought only spiders did that, and that all insects were happy with plants and liquid (blood is a liquid, right?)
There are quite a few insects that eat other insects! My favourite being the innocent looking lady bug – a mighty killer of aphids. Also there are several wasps that lay eggs in/on other bugs and turn them into mobile feasts.
How could I not have thought of the ladybug? I knew it ate smaller insects.
I like the strategy of laying eggs directly into other bugs. Not cool for the “host”, but I can already imagine how effective that would be for reproduction. The eggs would have something to eat after they hatch, and they would probably hatch a long way from were they were hatched. Makes total sense.
Sorry D for taking over your blog for off topic discussion again 🙂