Wildflowers

and Dragonflies
Wildflowers and Dragonflies

Common bluetail damselfly (Ischnura heterosticta). Photo copied under terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.
Credit Fir0002/Flagstaffotos.

Some ten years ago a Catholic retreat in Ipswich was acquired by New England
BioLabs. The parcel of land involved -- large, with gently rolling hills -- is beautifully
landscaped. The once magnificent old brick buildings have been restored, and to
them have been added contemporary glass and steel buildings. The two might coexist
in discomfort, were it for the magnificent changes made to the grounds.
In 2000 the company set aside the lower, level part of the grounds near the
highway (Route 1A) as a public soccer pitch, and planted the large, steep hillside
above the pitch in tall wildflowers. One day I parked on the road just below the
flowers and stood there feeling as if I had just stepped into a Renoir landscape. It
recalled the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy steps through a black
and white doorway into the striking colors of Oz.
The company has since placed original contemporary sculptures all about the
grounds, as well as a striking abstract that covers most of a side of one building.
One summer day when I visited here, hundreds of dragonflies were darting
southerngirlmusings.files.wordpress.com/2007/

about, not in mating or territorial behavior but just zipping about and giving each other
plenty of air space. I couldn't figure out what they were doing until I faced downhill,
into the sun, to watch the children at soccer practice. Only then did I notice that the
air was filled with midges too tiny to see until back-lighted by the sun. The dragonflies
were feeding on these.
One other day that summer, while sitting by the outdoor pool at the Manchester
Athletic Club, I noticed a large dragonfly that had claimed the entire pool as its
territory. It would hover above the pool, oblivious to wildly splashing children, and at
the first sign of another dragonfly would flash to that point so quickly that my eye could
scarcely follow. After each intruder was repelled (or courted?), the dragonfly would
return to the same precise spot over the pool.
Male dragonflies are very territorial. When you see two adults chasing each
other on the wing, it is often one male chasing another from its territory. When you
see two dragonflies flying attached to one another, it’s nearly always a male and
female mating.
Worldwide, the Odonata order of insects (dragonflies and damselflies) includes
more than 5,000 individual species. They exist in many countries around the world.
Within the United States, there are about 400 species of Odonata. Dragonflies are
some of the most ferocious predators of the insect world, both as larvae and as adults.
You may see them for only short periods each year, but they live longer than you might
think. Most of the adults you see have spent much more time in the larval stage (up to
three years) as aquatic predators than they will as adults. The adult, winged stage
lasts only a few weeks. Mating is the primary reason for their winged stage, so when
you see a winged dragonfly, you know it's approaching the end of its lifespan. They’re
highly beneficial to us, for they consume large quantities of flies and other pests.
Dragonflies are among the most ancient of the flying insects. Fossils with 27-
inch wingspans have been found dating back over 200 million years. Among extant
species, the largest have wingspans of five to six inches.
When I was young we called all dragonflies "darning needles." Our parents
perpetuated the myth that dragonflies could sew up the mouths of naughty children.
In other parts of the country, children were taught to believe that sleeping outside put
them at risk of having their eyes sewn shut by a dragonfly. [Earlier generations never
ran out of ways to keep children scared straight.] These insects are often curious
about people and will fly around you for that reason, but they do not sting or bite.
In Massachusetts alone
there are 120 species of
dragonfly. Most often seen
(or so I’m told) is the
Common Green Darner
(Anax junius). [Does the
name Darner hark back to
sewing up the mouths of
naughty children?] The ones I
see on Cape Ann lack the big
heads and transparent wings
of the Anax junius shown at
right. Most of those I've been
seeing more cloself resemble
Variable Dancers (Argia
fumipennis), but these are
damselflies.
Damselflies are
generally smaller than
Copied under terms of GNU Free Documentation License
dragonflies, and weaker
fliers. A key field point is that
damselflies at rest fold their
wings along and parallel to
their bodies, whereas
dragonflies rest with their
wings fully extended.
Some dragonfly species are
migratory, and some
migrations are spectacular
flights involving hundreds of
thousands, even a million or
more, individuals. Unlike
birds, a given generation of
dragonflies migrates only one
way, with the offspring of that
generation completing the round trip at a later time. [Not unlike Monarch butterflies
(see).]
By all rights, dragonflies shouldn't be able to fly as well as they do. Their flight
mechanism is ancient, over 300 million years old -- obsolete, really.
 Bees, flies and mosquitoes are the flying aces of the insect world. Their flight
muscles attach to the top of the thorax, which fits onto the bottom like a lid. When the
muscles twitch, the lid squeezes down and pulls the wing-base down with it. This flips
the rest of the wing up. When the muscles relax, the lid bulges upward again and the
process is reversed. This mechanism is what enables these insects to flap their wings
hundreds of times per second.
The flight muscles of dragonflies attach directly to the wings. When the muscle
contracts, the wing beats. This rules out the rapid flight of bees and flies, yet clearly
dragonflies are magnificent flying machines. Their four wings also allow them to
hover, fly backward, change direction instantaneously, and fly so fast in a straight line,
at speeds up to 30 miles per hour, that the eye can barely follow them. In fact, they fly
well enough to prey on flies and mosquitoes, those very insects that have left them in
the evolutionary dust.
The dragonfly's secret is genetic inventiveness. Its basic flight mechanism may
be obsolete, but the species has been re-engineering that mechanism in ways that
scientists are only now beginning to learn. And the retro-fitting began early. Experts
on the subject of ancient insect flight have discovered clever aerodynamic structures
in the wings of a dragonfly fossil 320 million years old (only about ten million years
after the oldest known flying insects). Other research has shown that dragonfly wings
derive energy from tiny whirlpools of air that are created around them. The dragonfly
may be ancient, but it's far from primitive.

http://oddsbodkins.posterous.com