Bug Eyes

With these guys so small, I don't see their eyes very well. I shot this with my phone and saw that this one seemed to be looking right at me. Dragonflies are certainly fun creatures.

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In reply to J.A. Ackley :

With compound eyes aren't you pretty much looking at everything all the time?

1988RedT2 said:

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Well, you can certainly see the eyes on that one

RX Reven' said:

In reply to J.A. Ackley :

With compound eyes aren't you pretty much looking at everything all the time?

Yes. Although, from what I've read, their vision varies based on where the images are coming from in their compound eye, with their rear vision the weakest. So, this dragonfly was using its best vision for me (or my iPhone). Dragonflies also see 200 images/second rather than our 60 images/second.

Love the colour!

Dragonflies are really cool. I observed some dragonflies herding a cluster of small flying insects into a ball about six feet off of the ground, then taking turns slashing through them to feed. 
 

When predatory fish like sailfish do this, it's called "balling the bait,"

Last year I got to see a dragonfly swarm in my own backyard. They seemed to be chasing food of some sort. It was amazing, especially since I really liked like dragonflies

Look into the aerodynamics of a dragonfly. Prepare to have your mind blown.

We have a small creek in our back yard, so we have a lot of dragonflies. One time I was sitting next to the creek with my older daughter and one of the dragonflied landed on my hand. I sat really still and then saw a flash of white as a bug flew into a beam of sunlight that was passing over my shoulder. The dragonfly took off, swooped down and grabbed the bug, then flew back to my hand. It was using me as a hunting stand! I noticed that the cool shady area made the one beam of light into a target finder: every time a bug flew into it, it stood out like a laser pointer was shining on it. And the dragonfly would nail it. Amazing.

My seven year old is trying to raise dragonflies. She has an aquarium all set up and twice we've put what we think were dragonfly eggs into it but no luck so far. We'll keep trying. She put some little creek chubs we caught in our creek in there as food (for the hoped-for larva, which are also carnivorous) and I'm afraid they may be eating the dragonfly eggs and/or larva. Creek chubs are ALSO carnivorous and very aggressive.

I dated an entomologist for a few years. One day we were talking about my favourite animals (land: Bengal Tiger, Sea: Giant Pacific Octopus, Air: Peregrine Falcon) and she asked me about insects. I thought about it for a bit and said probably the Dragonfly.

She (a vegan) said "All your favourite animals are predators"

Sure. Those are the interesting ones. Everything else is just food.

this one had gotten too wet to fly so i put  it on the trailer to dry off in the sun. 

When the flying termites start doing their thing late summer around here, we love watching the dragonflies slash through 'em. Goldern things will do an Immelmann turn that'd make a Top Gun puke, dive on the target and sometimes you can hear the impact and then all that's left is 4 transparent little wings fluttering down. Splash one, splash one...

It's interesting how they will orient to a person sometimes. Many years ago I was canoeing down Rock Springs run, and had one ride along on my girlfriend's hand for a few miles. It would leave, and then return, just like described here

Anything in that eats mosquitos in Florida is OK with me.

About ten years ago, we had the circumstances for a mosquito swarm summer.  It was horrible.  Go out to the acreage to load the late model, get absolutely eaten, then open the trailer next morning to let them out...

One day, there was a glorious swarm of dragonflies came through, and the mosquitos were back to normal.  Some of those dragonflies, or as I like to say, helicopter bugs, were freaking huge.