Our Dragonfly

Post 884....wow, me, who would have thought, A Dragonfly!

I took this picture today of a critter we caught at school.
1st graders are good at spotting things.
I think it's a wonderful picture. Actually.

One of my best I think.
We saw it on the way to the Fire Station, on the wall, so I had to stop, catch it, get a jar, put it in carefully, and have it wait until we returned to really look it over. I learned quite a bit about dragonflies today by taking this one out to the yard to share it in our jar. It was popular for sure. I haven't sat down today yet, or had a break yet, or stopped working 5AM til 5PM yet, and on Yom Kippur- which I'm not thinking is appropriate, but still I want to blog about this amazing creature.
Before you ask, yes, he's back in nature.

First thing I found out by watching, dragonflies turn their heads around, 360 degrees, not like you might think at all, and they appear to groom their head. It goes ALL the way around, and this is a bit disconcerting. We noticed that. They right themselves when flipped over very efficiently too. And they make an incredible buzz flying.
You know the best thing to do is take you to some good pages on them.

So here we go, a festival of linking.
If you just want to look through a million dragonfly links try this.
It's just amazing.

But I want to know more about this insect, and so I went to find something reasonable.
So this page seems interesting, and I'm linking you here....
This SAYS that they cannot sting. I am not sure about that, but I respect the information, and I did lift the bug right into my jar, so, okay.

This page, What Is A Dragonfly? was the one we used to read about our find. Pretty interesting.
My favorite part:

"The face is a conglomeration of plates separated by seams called sutures. The sutures are often darkened into stripes. The upper half of the face is the frons, and the upper surface of the frons is a shelf-like protuberance on which various diagnostic markings may be found. The compound eye is composed of nearly 30,000 lenses, which work in consort to provide a rich visual image to the dragonfly. They are sight-based creatures who, with a quick turn of the head, are able to scan 360 degrees as well as above and below. Their vision probably allows them to discern individual wing beats, which to us would appear as a blur. They can see ultraviolet and polarized light. Many species also see well in dim light.

Their two short bristly antennae are thought to function as windsocks or anemometers, measuring wind direction and speed, thereby giving them a method with which to assess their flight. By the way, dragonflies have no sense of hearing, cannot smell and are unable to vocalize."

I cannot say that I was surprised to learn the pattern of their lacy wings identifies them. It's remarkable. So if you read the information here are our wings to see if you can help us identify this one. We caught it in Oxnard, CA.

Here's a really cool video if you get into these things.


I, evidentially, get into these things.

I also get into origami so here is a pretty nice dragonfly you can keep. We all want to know WHERE to get that paper. It's wonderful.

How To Make an Origami Dragonfly on Howcast

Here's a nice lesson about the dragonfly, again you have to be ready for it:



So that's pretty amazing isn't it.

This video gets points for the music. Despite the fact I Can Never listen Again.



Here I found interesting information:

• Dragonfly Life Cycle
• Dragonfly Facts & Myths
• Dragonfly Pictures
• Lists of Dragonflies found Regionally
• Dragonfly Books
• Symbolism/ Meaning of a Dragonfly
• What Do Dragonflies Eat?

But , of course, we wanted to IDENTIFY our insect so we went here:
CALIFORNIA DRAGONFLIES & DAMSELFLIES
aka
CALIFORNIA ODONATA

I think it's a Common Green Darner
See:

images by Doug Aguillard at his website
male
images by Ray Bruun at his website
male eating a flame skimmer
images by Bob Miller at his website
images by John Sterling at his website
female
female
female
female
female
female
female emerging
pair ovipositing
female solo ovipositing
nymph
exuvia
Scans
male
young male top
young male side
female
female
female
nymph
exuvia
exuvia

I'm pretty sure but please feel free to check my work. I looked at wings, color and eye.
I think I'm on it!


( I'm adding in this wonderful link, On Dragonfly Migration, we record observations of migrations on this site and love it.)