33 of 100: Dragonflies

Dragonflies—and their relatives the damselflies—are beautiful. And amazing. Just look at these few:

Male red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii)

A mating pair of Chlorogomphus magnificus

Kirby's dropwing (Trithemis kirbyi)

And those are only a few species of some 3,000, in 348 genera, in 11 families—not to mention almost 3,000 more species (in 309 genera) of those relatives, the damselflies. (Though Nat Geo claims there are 7,000 species of dragonflies, so who really knows.) Order Odonata (from the Greek for tooth, maybe because their mouthparts are "toothed"); suborder Epiprocta (meaning unknown to me); infraorder Anisoptera (meaning unequal wings, their hindwings being broader than their forewings).

Their compound eyes contain some 24,000 ommatidia, or photo receptor cells:

these are damselfly eyes, but you get the picture

Dragonflies are predators, as adults catching their prey of other insects—mosquitos, midges, butterflies, small dragon- and damselflies—in mid-air using their long legs.

A dragonfly begins life in an aquatic nymphal stage, which lasts up to five years:

The adult, meanwhile—the creature we see flying around so enchantingly—lives for only up to ten weeks, more often five, and in some cases only a few days. Here is the anatomy of an adult dragonfly:

I have a (very small) collection of Japanese tea implements with dragonfly motifs, including this teapot:

There's much more to say about dragonflies—how their wings work, what they eat, their elaborate sex life, where they live (everywhere but Antarctica, of course)—but for today I think I'll just let the images do the work.

And here's a final one: a damselfly, male, the beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo):