When I was in grade school a read I book titled Nature Thought of It First, which illustrates how man has adapted principles of nature’s tools, traps, defenses, weapons, and inventions for his own purposes. Dragonflies, with their ability to hover in the air, are man’s inspiration for the invention of helicopters.
Dragonflies are characterized by large multi-faceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. They are some of the fastest insects in the world. Dragonflies are valuable predators that eat mosquitoes and other small insects. They are usually found around marshes, lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs,” are aquatic.
In the United States dragonflies and their relatives, the damselflies are sought out as a hobby similar to birding and butterflying, known as “oding,” from the dragonfly’s Latin species name, odonata. Oding is especially popular in Texas, where 225 different species of odonates have been observed.
Along with butterflies, dragonflies fascinate and capture our imagination. No doubt, their prowess as aviators has a lot to do with that fascination. Dragonflies flit and dart to and fro, up and down, hovering and zigzagging. Their aerial movements are the envy of human pilots and aeronautical engineers everywhere – their ability to catch (and devour) flying insect pests is nothing short of amazing.
The predecessors of modern dragonflies and damselflies appeared more than 300 million years ago. One of these, Meganeura monyi, is the largest flying insect ever known. Fossils of this giant dragonfly ancestor show it had a wingspan of 2-1/2 feet compared with modern species wing spans of just a few inches.