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A review by jost88
Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natural History by Dennis Paulson
5.0
I'm a massive dragonfly and damselfly enthusiast. The animals I'm most obsessed with are gibbons and gorillas. The former because although they sometimes fight they often solve conflicts the same way they bond with their partners and family members, by singing. The latter because they are calm, playful, food-loving pacifists. But dragonflies are wondrous, spectacularly beautiful otherwordly beings with six legs and two pairs of wings and colours that make me happy. In this book we learn many fascinating things that I'm so grateful to have read. Here is a list to give you an idea:
* Their larvae are called nymphs or naiads, just as it is with mayflies, who are their closest relatives.
* They mostly eat mosquitoes and other biting flies, but larvae may eat fish and tadpoles, and large adults can catch and eat small hummingbirds.
* While we've been here a short while - homo sapiens is just around 200 000 years old - they've been around for 250 million years, though their distant ancestors would have been as different to their sophisticated eyes as the last common ancestor among hominids would be to us.
* Dragonfly researchers are called ondonatologists, and many odontologists have turned up, very confused, at dragonfly meetings!
* The order of odonates come in two distinct types - dragonflies and damselflies. Dragonflies have larger eyes, positioned much closer together, and their hindwings are broader than their forewings. Damselflies have smaller eyes that are much more separated and their forewings and hindwings are about the same size and shape.
* When they fly, they enfold their legs, then they extend them to ensnare their prey at flight with formidable spines. They use their super sharp mandibles to bite off wings, which they drop to the ground, and then chew up the nutritious parts of their prey.
* Amazingly, their head can rotate at least 170 degrees and tilt upwards 90 degrees.
* Along with their enormous eyes, they have three light-sensitive small pearly receptors at the front of the top of their head which in their constellation form a little triangle.
* Their antennae detect movement to make flight smoother, and also allows them a sense of smell as their sensory pits are olfactory.
* As their exoskeleton doesn't have a sense of touch, they have sensilla over their bodies, microscopic tactile hair that can specialize in detecting touch, smell, or temperature.
* The largest surviving dragonfly is 11 cm and has a wingspan of 16 cm and can be found in Australian rainforests. The largest damselfly, still existing in the Amazon rainforest, can reach a length of 21 cm and a wingspan of 18 cm. The biggest odonates weigh as much as the smallest hummingbirds.
* 325 million years ago, there were dragonflies with wingspans of up to 70 cm, their bodies over 30 cm long.
* Odenates are poetically called "rainbows on the wing". Scientists have done clever experiments that shows us that both males and females are attracted to display of spectacular colours, so they attract with their colour the same way many birds do, but they also use colour as a signal to differentiate one another and for predators to stay away.
Read this wonderful book and be amazed. If you find these creatures fascinating, you won't regret it!
* Their larvae are called nymphs or naiads, just as it is with mayflies, who are their closest relatives.
* They mostly eat mosquitoes and other biting flies, but larvae may eat fish and tadpoles, and large adults can catch and eat small hummingbirds.
* While we've been here a short while - homo sapiens is just around 200 000 years old - they've been around for 250 million years, though their distant ancestors would have been as different to their sophisticated eyes as the last common ancestor among hominids would be to us.
* Dragonfly researchers are called ondonatologists, and many odontologists have turned up, very confused, at dragonfly meetings!
* The order of odonates come in two distinct types - dragonflies and damselflies. Dragonflies have larger eyes, positioned much closer together, and their hindwings are broader than their forewings. Damselflies have smaller eyes that are much more separated and their forewings and hindwings are about the same size and shape.
* When they fly, they enfold their legs, then they extend them to ensnare their prey at flight with formidable spines. They use their super sharp mandibles to bite off wings, which they drop to the ground, and then chew up the nutritious parts of their prey.
* Amazingly, their head can rotate at least 170 degrees and tilt upwards 90 degrees.
* Along with their enormous eyes, they have three light-sensitive small pearly receptors at the front of the top of their head which in their constellation form a little triangle.
* Their antennae detect movement to make flight smoother, and also allows them a sense of smell as their sensory pits are olfactory.
* As their exoskeleton doesn't have a sense of touch, they have sensilla over their bodies, microscopic tactile hair that can specialize in detecting touch, smell, or temperature.
* The largest surviving dragonfly is 11 cm and has a wingspan of 16 cm and can be found in Australian rainforests. The largest damselfly, still existing in the Amazon rainforest, can reach a length of 21 cm and a wingspan of 18 cm. The biggest odonates weigh as much as the smallest hummingbirds.
* 325 million years ago, there were dragonflies with wingspans of up to 70 cm, their bodies over 30 cm long.
* Odenates are poetically called "rainbows on the wing". Scientists have done clever experiments that shows us that both males and females are attracted to display of spectacular colours, so they attract with their colour the same way many birds do, but they also use colour as a signal to differentiate one another and for predators to stay away.
Read this wonderful book and be amazed. If you find these creatures fascinating, you won't regret it!