Dragonfly

[beige_alert]

While out on Pike Lake with Joyce in the kayaks a dragonfly landed on my hand and spent a minute of two resting there and cleaning its eyes, allowing me a close-up view. Normally, they are hard to get a close look at, since they tend to fly away at the slightest provocation. I don’t know anything about dragonflies, but this one was smallish and had light blue stripes. Some kinds keep their wings spread out when resting, but this kind folds them back.

As for another flying thing on Pike Lake, the Cessna 180 on floats that I saw last year was again tied up on the lake shore.

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I'm not expert on the odonata myself, (though I think I do have the fancy latin name right) but my understanding is that the ones who fold their wings back are called damselflies, and the ones who keep them out straight when they land are called dragonflies. So that would have been a damselfly that landed on you.

OK, My Peterson's Insect guide seems to confirm that.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Cool! I never knew what damselflies were.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Gee, I've known for years that the order containing the dragonflies and damselflies was Ornithoptera.

So I did a little web searching, and it says that the dragonflies and damselflies are order Odonata, and that "ornithoptera" isn't a word.

Apparently I stumbled across a world boundary on a foggy night (so who recognizes that reference?) and my memory failed to adjust on this point.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Ornithoptera are the mechanical, wind-up, wing-flapping insects. There are orthoptera, but I don't recall what they are, and I'm now on the computer one floor below my bug book, so I can't be bothered to expand my knowledge.

By the way, a few years ago, I engaged in a fun little nature exercise--listing all the beasts I could in my immediate neighborhood. I did it for our condo complex, but you might pick a boundary like walkinging distance from home or your yard. These are the results:

http://members.aol.com/riin/wildlife.htm

You will notice that a lot of the identifications are incomplete or vague. It's hard enough to get most insects down to he family level, let alone species level.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Orthoptera are the grasshoppers and such, characterized by incomplete metamorphosis and a winged adult stage (and probably other things, but that's what I remember).

I could easily go into my front yard and find hundreds of species of insects and other arthropida, though I doubt I could name the species of more than a dozen.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I amd tempted to challenge you to do just that, but then you could easily end up throwing away your whole life immersed in entomology.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

...and then another life immersed in etymology...

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I'm curious enough about the many-legged beasties that they help me enjoy my time outdoors, but I'm really not looking for another interest to devote large amonts of time to -- quite the contrary, I'm looking for large amounts of time to devote to the interests I have!