For the Love of Dragonflies!

I love dragonflies! But I didn’t know this until I started taking pictures. Without my camera, and without the ability to bring up pictures on my computer, I had no idea that dragonflies were so beautiful, that they came in such a wide variety of sizes and colors, that their wings were such masterpieces of engineering, or that there were so many different kinds!

Over the course of my photography journey, I’ve found almost every color dragonfly imaginable including red, white, blue, green, purple, orange, black, brown, and pink!  These little creatures are not just candy for the eyes, they’re amazing acrobats as well; flying deftly in all directions like miniature helicopters!

For clarification, there are both dragonflies and damselflies. Collectively, they are known as Odonata. To the casual observer, dragonflies and damselflies probably look the same. They both have 6 legs, a head, and an abdomen; both have two pairs of transparent wings, bulgy eyes, and stick-like bodies. But there are a couple of features that help differentiate the two: body shape and wing position.

Dragonflies have bodies that are much thicker and bulkier than damselflies and because of their heftier size, it’s more likely that you’ll notice a dragonfly long before you’ll ever see the tiny, delicate-looking damselflies. When dragonflies are at rest, they hold their wings perpendicular to their bodies like an airplane. Damselflies, on the other hand, fold their wings up and hold them together across the top of their backs.

I much prefer the dragonflies to the damselflies, mostly because they’re bigger and much easier to photograph, and because I can more readily capture the details in their wings. Had I been around 300 million years ago, when dragonflies were first evolving, it would have been even easier to get a picture! Those early insects had wingspans of two feet or more! Today’s dragonflies have wingspans of less than five inches!

Over the years, I’ve found so many different dragonflies that I’ve lost track of how many. Worldwide, there are at least 5000 different species, with dragonflies being much more common than damselflies. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. Here in the United States, there are about 450 different kinds of dragonflies and damselflies. In my home state of Michigan, we have about 165 different kinds, and I’m pretty sure I’ve found most of them!

What is most interesting to me is their life cycle, and their peculiar sex lives! Dragonflies have three life stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The female lays her eggs in the water throughout the summer where they hatch and grow into nymphs. Some of those nymphs will remain in the water over the winter and emerge as adults the following summer. Some will remain in the water for years! While underwater, the dragonfly nymph will eat just about anything it can grab —tadpoles, mosquitoes, fish, other insect larvae and even each other!

When the nymph is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it stops eating and makes its way to the surface of the water where it climbs up a reed and crawls out of its larval skin or exoskeleton. Once it emerges from its exoskeleton, the dragonfly becomes a skillful and prolific predator. Nearly every minute of its day is spent devouring the insects that annoy us —like mosquitoes, gnats, cicadas, and flies! One dragonfly alone can eat hundreds of mosquitoes a day! Predators that like to eat dragonflies include birds, fish, frogs, bees, bats, spiders, and other dragonflies!

Dragonfly sex is a rough-and-tumble affair. Their sexual coupling requires the flexibility and acrobatic skill of a “Cirque de Soleil” performer. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male’s secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming a “heart” or “wheel” shape. In the process, females get bitten, males get scratched, and sperm winds up all over the place! After the deed is done, mama dragonfly lays her eggs by tapping the surface of the water repeatedly with her abdomen, or by shaking the eggs out of her abdomen as she flies along, or by placing the eggs on vegetation.

Unfortunately, loss of wetland habitat is a big threat to our dragonfly populations around the world. At least one in ten species of dragonfly are threatened with extinction, according to the first world survey of their numbers. The loss of a dragonfly population threatens the loss of other creatures in that food chain. Ultimately, the loss of any one species is a loss for all of us.