Dragonflies

Nature 2 Minutes

The earliest dinosaur fossils date back 240 million years. But can you believe that dragonfly fossils have been found to be even older than that? Paleontologists place the earliest known dragonflies more than 300 million years ago, long before dinosaurs ruled the Earth. The dragonflies of the prehistoric era weren’t only old — they were enormous! Some dragonfly fossils have a 30-inch wingspan, which is about as big as a modern crow.

Today, the largest dragonflies (Petalura ingentissima) have a 6.3-inch wingspan and are found in Australia. Dragonflies don’t really look like dragons, so how did they get their name? The answer comes from Romanian folklore and the story of St. George. In the myth, the Devil turned St. George’s horse into a huge insect. That earned dragonflies the Romanian name for “Devil’s Horse.” Since the Romanian word drac means both “Devil” and “dragon,” the insect soon became “dragonfly.”

Despite their place in the order Odonata, which means “toothed,” dragonflies don’t have teeth. Like other insects, they have sharp mandibles on their jaw used for tearing and eating prey. Their bite isn’t dangerous for humans, but it can definitely pinch! Dragonflies have two giant eyes that contain nearly 30,000 lenses called ommatidia. Their eyes are so big that they cover the dragonfly’s entire head, allowing it to see 360 degrees around — perfect for a creature that tends to be both predator and prey. Dragonflies are the fastest flying insect in the world. Some large species of dragonflies can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour, which is even faster than the average hummingbird!

While dragonflies are the fastest fliers, they don’t get that way by beating their wings more quickly than other insects. Dragonflies beat their wings around 30 times per second. That sounds very fast until you compare that rate to bees (200 times per second) or mosquitoes (800 times per second). Because dragonflies have a unique two-wing design, they are incredibly aerodynamic. Dragonflies can fly in any direction that a helicopter can fly, including 360 degree turns, hovering in one place and even backward.

Dragonflies aren’t born to fly. In fact, they’re born to swim! Dragonflies lay their eggs in still water. The eggs hatch shortly after, and dragonfly larvae (known as nymphs) emerge as aquatic creatures. These nymphs may spend up to four years in the water before the next stage of their life cycle. As nymphs, dragonflies learn to be prolific hunters. Nymphs eat any aquatic creatures they can handle, which include mosquito larvae, worms and tadpoles. As they get bigger, small fish can even become part of their diet.

During the course of their nymph stage, dragonflies molt up to 12 times as they grow. Their final molt takes place out of the water. Unlike butterflies and moths, who use this time to transition to the pupal stage, dragonflies progress straight from larva to fully grown adults. The nymph’s skin splits open and the adult dragonfly body emerges. After a short rest, it’s ready to fly!

Dragonflies typically hunt and eat in midair. They can catch any insect (they’re not picky about the type) by creating a snare with their legs or by simply plucking it out of the air with their jaws. They eat their prey quickly and move on to the next hunt. Larger dragonflies can even eat their own body weight in a day. If you’re seeing fewer mosquitoes around than you normally do, thank a dragonfly! Dragonflies can eat up to 100 mosquitoes a day, which helps freshwater ecosystems flourish. It also keeps mosquitoes from spreading dangerous diseases to humans.

Unknown's avatar

Published by pat frederick

Published

127 thoughts on “Dragonflies”

  1. Liked by 1 person

  2. more on PIGlosi…his company got $1.7 MILLION in PPP loans which were forgiven…
    FTA
    Paul Pelosi has an 8.1 percent share in a company called EDI Associates, The Daily Mail reported. And the company got $1.7 million in PPP loans.

    This one holds a special place in my ❤️@SpeakerPelosi ‘s husband Paul Pelosi took some PPP loans as well even though him and his wife do absolutely excellent in the stock market and both also have two full time careers. Clearly they needed it… pic.twitter.com/lMVDb6HpwL

    — Mike Roy (@MikeDotRoy) August 21, 2022

    Gee, love, and ripoff of voters’ money– isn’t that special?

    The $1.7 million came in two loans, and both have been forgiven.

    Sure is lucky that his business doesn’t have to pay all that back, isn’t it?

    It wasn’t luck. Paul hasn’t done any inside trading in a few days. The guy must be broke or very close to it.

    The $1.7 million came in two loans, and both have been forgiven because America is a country that believes in forgiveness. Especially for politicians. His business doesn’t have to pay all that back.

    Paul Pelosi has a net worth of over 120 Million and took a 1,709,100 dollar PPP loan that was then forgiven. But they need 87,000 IRS agents to look into your finances.

    — Joey – PotowatomiX! Still with Sarcasm (@jjstyx) August 17, 2022

    Paul Pelosi and Hollywood Crooks have millions of loans forgiven https://t.co/xHYAZrEnXT

    — K. Bitterman Gross (@KBittermanGross) August 19, 2022

    EXCLUSIVE: It pays to be rich! America’s wealthiest, including Tom Brady, Khloe Kardashian, Reese Witherspoon, Kanye and Nancy Pelosi’s husband took millions in PPP loans – and nearly all have been forgivenhttps://t.co/l8F7OtorZF

    — Larry Elder (@larryelder) August 18, 2022

    https://lidblog.com/pelosis-husband-had-millions/

    Liked by 2 people

  3. bringing this from tcth…voting in FLA

    Sobriquet
    August 23, 2022 3:00 pm

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/exclusive-new-report-raises-serious-concerns-over-integrity-of-florida-elections_4670640.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-08-23&utm_medium=email&est=fUFLSeHdGre1QmkFV7PRgY1yHIuHxtCa7dSOuW5NGoC2e5UN1gMtVQOrA0rrvgIdDw%3D%3D

    On the heels of this report I went to vote this morning (Florida). I live in a small rural town with 3 red lights and approximately 10k registered voters. This is what happened.

    Their website gave me wrong location. The town is only about 3 miles long so I went less than a mile to the other voting place.
    There were NO signs showing this was a voting place until you hit the front door. The 1st location was well marked from Main Street.
    The Republican ballot only had 3 categories with 2 or 3 people running in each. Like I said it’s a small area.
    I marked my 3 circles and took to the machine and fed it in face up…just like the poll worker advised.
    My spouse took his to feed into machine and it spit it out. Poll worker tried to run it thru again and it spit it out. She told him he had not “darkened” the circle enough. He went back and darkened it more, came back and machine spit it out again.
    poll worker said…”you darkened it too much”.
    He was never offered another ballot. He told her to toss the ballot and he left…p.o’d.

    While the poll worker was waving it around the first time I looked at it and the circles were not properly printed on ballot. I tried to explain this to the idiots but by then we had become “domestic suspects”.
    I came home and called the election supervisor. His assistant said she would have him return my call. She hung up but her phone never disconnected!!! I listened to 15 minutes of her speaking to other callers before she realized phone was off hook.
    Yes it was a landline. Yes the county is blue.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Just had a bowl of more delicious peaches. I’ve put all those I’m not taking to Mom’s for ice cream in the fridge so they don’t ripen too fast – putting them in the fridge will slow that down. I can only eat so many peaches at one time! LOL

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Liked by 1 person

  7. Liked by 1 person

  8. Weissmann…
    from tcth

    TJ
    TJ
    August 23, 2022 4:41 pm

    “Before the special council was appointed…I had discussions with [the FARA] offices, and made an agreement with them, and filed.

    “Then the special council got appointed and Weissmann called the director of the office up and said, what’s the situation with Manafort, the FARA issue. They said, no, there’s not an issue anymore, it’s been resolved. [Wiessmann] said, no it hasn’t, I’m taking it over, throwing out whatever you did…and he took it over. What I resolved was no penatlies, no payments of any kind, not even a slap on the wrist.

    “Wiessmann turned it into a criminal prosecution.”

    – Paul Manafort, August 17, 2022 (Book Interview)

    Liked by 1 person

  10. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

Comments are closed.