Dragonfly

“ The Libellulidæ, or Dragonflies, are almost equally conspicuous with the butterflies in open, sunny places. More than a hundred different kinds are found near Pará; the numerous ditches and pools being, doubtless, favourable to their increase, for the adolescent states of the dragonfly are passed in an element different from that in which the adult exists. The species are not all confined to open, sunny places. Some are adapted to live only in the darkest shades of the forest, and these are, perhaps, the most beautiful, being brightly coloured and more delicate in structure than the others. ”

“ Dragonfly said.
“Why, Dragonfly Gilbert!” I said. “Go on home yourself if you are scared! Poetry and I have got to investigate!”
“I’m not s-s-s-scared,” Dragonfly said—and was.
As quick as we were sure the car was really gone, I turned on my Pop’s big, long, three-batteried flashlight—I having had it with me—and Poetry, Dragonfly and I started to climb through the rail fence to go toward the mound of yellowish-brown earth beside Sarah Paddler’s tombstone. ”

“ The more Eatmore you eat, the more you like it.’”
It was disgusting; very disappointing also.
“Smell it,” Poetry exclaimed, which I did, and say!
Boy oh boy, there was really a perfume odor around the place now! If Dragonfly had been there, I thought again—or rather, started to think and didn’t get to finish, ’cause all of a sudden from the crest of the hill I heard a rustling of last year’s dry leaves, saw42 a flashlight leading the way and a spindle-legged barefoot boy in red-striped pajamas coming down the incline to the spring. Imagine that! Dragonfly in his night clothes! What on earth! ”

“ The dragonfly, by its strength of wing, will sustain itself in the air for a long summer day with unabated speed. The house-fly makes six hundred strokes with its wings, which will carry it five feet, every second. ”

“ Dragon Fly. It has no sting and is harmless to man. It feeds on insects which it catches while on the wing. When dragon flies alight, which isn't often, for they seem tireless, they keep their wings outspread. The damsel flies fold their slender wings down their darning-needle backs, in the shyest way, as if they didn't want to be noticed. Their name comes from the French—demoiselle—which means young lady. One of the damselflies is so gray and modest that it is called marsh nun.
All these are insect feeders, both in the winged and in the larva stage. ”

“ There are dragon-flies, ant-lions, tiger-beetles and spiders. But some of them have quite innocent names, such as frog, toad and lady-bird.
Wouldn't mosquitoes and flies and gnats be indignant, if they knew that we think the dragon fly beautiful? But it is as beautiful as any butterfly, and in its darting, skimming flight it is as swift and graceful as a swallow. It really is the swallow of the insect world. It catches and eats its food on the wing, and it eats nothing but flying creatures smaller than itself. ”

“ In colour these larvae are generally muddy, and they frequently have a coating of muddy particles, and hence are less likely to be observed by their victims. If among insects the perfect dragon-fly may be termed the tyrant of the air, so may its larva be styled that of the water. Aquatic insects and larvae form the principal food, but there can be no doubt that worms, the fry of fish, and even younger larvae of their own species, form part of the bill of fare. ”

“ Were we to select from among the insects a type of all that is savage, relentless, and bloodthirsty, the Dragon fly would be our choice. From the moment of its birth until its death, usually a twelve-month, it riots in bloodshed and carnage. Living beneath the waters perhaps eleven months of its life, in the larva and pupa states, it is literally a walking pitfall for luckless aquatic insects; but when transformed into a fly, ever on the wing in pursuit of its prey, it throws off all concealment, and reveals the more unblushingly its rapacious character. ”

“ Its two long wings on either side are the planes, its head the nose, its thorax the fuselage and its long projecting abdomen [94] the tail or rudder. On wing the dragon-fly is one of the swiftest and most powerful insects. The dragon-flies are found all over the world being most abundant in the warmer regions where rainfall and bodies of water are abundant. For breeding they require water, their immature stages living under water feeding on aquatic animal life. Our present order of dragon-flies is the remains of an ancient race of insects of immense size. ”

“ The dragon fly is of a ferocious and warlike disposition, hovering in the air like a bird of prey, in order to feed on and destroy [260] every species of fly; its appetite is gross and voracious, not confining itself to small flies only, but the large flesh-fly, moths, and butterflies, are equally subjected to its tyranny. It frequents marshy grounds, where insects mostly abound.
The female of the CYNIPS or GALL INSECT, which has no wings, passes through no transformation; while the male, which has four wings, passes through the pupa state before it becomes a fly. ”

“ The dragon-fly often remains on the wing in pursuit of its prey for hours at a stretch, and yet will sometimes baffle the swallow by its speed, although that bird is calculated to be able to move at the rate of a mile in a minute. But the dexterity of this insect is even more surprising than its swiftness, for it is able to do what no bird can: it is able to stop instantaneously in the midst of its most rapid course, and change the direction of its flight, going sideways or backwards, without altering the position of its body. ”

“ But when the bee had flown off to beg from flower to flower, and the butterfly had fluttered away to his playfellows, the dragon-fly still remained poised on a blade of grass. Her slender and burnished body, more brightly and deeply blue than the deep blue sky, glistened in the sunbeam; and her net-like wings laughed at the flowers because they could not fly, but must stand still and abide the wind and the rain. The dragon-fly sipped a little of the child's clear dew-drops and blue-violet honey, and then whispered her winged words. ”

“ Hurtling low over the sedge-tops, and flashing in the sunlight like a lace-pin of rubies, came a small rose-colored dragon-fly, fleeing for its life before a monster of its species which blazed in emerald and amethyst. The chase could have but one ending, for the giant had the speed as well as the voracious hunger. The glistening films of his wings rustled crisply as he overtook the shining fugitive and caught its slender body in his jaws. The silver wings of the victim vibrated wildly. The chase came to a hovering pause just before that immobile shape on the point of the sand-spit. ”

“ Its fore-wings are quite transparent, whilst the hind-wings have a dark ground-colour, which glitters with a violet and golden refulgence. All the kinds of dragonflies wage an unceasing war with day-flying winged insects, and I am inclined to think that they commit as much destruction in this way as birds do. I have often observed them chasing butterflies. They are not always successful in capturing them, for some of their intended victims, by a dodging manner of flight, contrive to escape their clutches. ”

“ Above this unruffled surface the air was full of dancing life. Gnats hung in little, whirling nebulæ; mosquitoes, wasplike flies, and whirring, shard-winged beetles, passed and repassed each other in intricate lines of flight; and, here and there, lucently flashing on long, transparent, veined wings, darted the dragon-flies in their gemlike mail. Their movements [74] were so swift, powerful, and light that it was difficult, in spite of their size and radiant colour, to detect the business that kept the dragon-flies so incessantly and tirelessly in action. ”

“ To effect its metamorphosis it drags itself out of the water, where it has lived for nearly a year, climbs slowly to some neighbouring plant, and hangs itself there. Very soon the sun dries and hardens its skin, which all of a sudden becomes crisp, and cracks. The dragon-fly then sets free its head and its thorax, and its legs; its wings, still soft and wanting in vigour, gain strength by coming in contact with the air, and, after a few hours, they have attained their full development. ”

“ Readers of Chatterbox, who combine a love of natural history with a fondness for boating, have probably many a time watched the gauze-winged dragon-fly hawking for flies. But how many have realised that, below the surface of the stream, the coming generation of dragon-flies was waging a precisely similar war—a war, too, even more relentless? The full-fledged dragon-fly cannot bring himself to venture out, even to eat, unless the sun be shining; but the budding dragon-fly has not yet learnt to be so particular, and hunts incessantly, be the weather fine or wet. ”

“ It is only such an examination that can reveal to us some equally important, but less obvious features of the insect. But to catch a Dragon-fly is not always an easy task; the Libellulæ are very timorous, or else they are suspicious of the prowling naturalist who seeks what he can entrap. Their flight is livelier and swifter than even that of the butterfly: when disturbed in their repose, they fly away abruptly, their wings rustling or crackling like a sheet of parchment; if obstinately pursued, they grow irritated, and in their quick jerking movements exhibit all the rage of the Carnivora. ”

“ If it gets caught in a place where its wide wings cannot turn, it can fly backwards and get off safely. In a place where the wings might be injured by striking against leaves or branches, it flies out in this way.
When dragon-flies are dead, the great beauty of their bodies passes away. They fade and grow dull, as when they first came from the pupa-case. The scarlet, yellow, blue, or green turns to a dull drab. So you cannot keep them as well as you can keep beetles. It is life that gives the dragon-fly its splendid beauty. ”

“ A notice of fossil forms should not be concluded without the remark that indications of at least two species have been found in amber, a number disproportionately small if compared with other insects entombed therein; but it must be remembered that a dragon-fly is, as a rule, an insect of great power, and in all probability those then existing were able to extricate themselves if accidentally entangled in the resin. ”

“ Dragon-flies are extremely voracious, and are the greatest tyrants of the insect tribe. When we think them idly and innocently flitting about in the cheerful sunshine, they are, in fact, only hovering up and down to seize their prey."
"Which are the insects upon which they particularly feed, mamma?" enquired Ferdinand.
_Mrs. B There is none, how large soever, that they will not attack and devour. The blue fly, the bee, the wasp, and the hornet, are their constant prey; and even your favourite butterfly is often caught, and treated without mercy. Their appetite seems to know no bounds ”

“ This swelling is a sort of sheath to the beautiful gauzy wings which distinguish all the Neuroptera, and the dragon-fly in particular."
"What! does the dragon-fly begin its life by living in water like a fish?"
"Yes, and they are quite as voracious in that state as when they are perfect insects. The larva changes to a grub, and greedily devours water-lizards and young fish; after a certain time, which varies according to the species, it rises to the top of the water by crawling up a reed, and remains perfectly motionless, exposed to the rays of the sun ”

“ Then the dragon-fly devours what it catches by these strong-toothed jaws. It is a hungry fellow, it is."
The old man puffed away quietly for a few minutes, while the children watched the darning-needle and hoped Ben Gile would say something soon.
"Those scientists," he continued, "who are working on flying-machines could learn a good deal from this fellow. The dragon-fly is made for flight. A long, slender, tapering body that cuts the air, moved by four narrow, gauzy wings, and steered by that pointed abdomen. They eat, mate, and lay their eggs while they are flying. ”

“ Break the thick ice, if necessary, that shuts from view the shallow pool, scoop up the dead pond weeds that mat the soft mud below, and see how every bit of it teems with curious life. The brilliant dragon-flies that darted so angrily about you last summer dropped their eggs here in the water, and these, hatching, produced creatures so widely different from their parents that few people suspect any kinship. Veritable dragons, on a small scale, they are none the less active because ice and snow have shut out the sunlight. ”

“ Then the dragon-fly told much of the merry life in the green wood; how sometimes she played hide-and-seek with her playfellows under the broad leaves of the oak and the beech trees, or hunt-the-hare along the surface of the still waters; sometimes quietly watched the sunbeams, as they flew busily from moss to flower and from flower to bush, and shed life and warmth over all. ”

“ The dragon-fly larva has the same predaceous mode of life as its parent, but it is sluggish in habit, lurking for its prey at the bottom of the pond, among the mud or vegetation, which it resembles in colour. ”

“ There is one insect to which attention may be drawn, as affording a most striking example of speed among lowly-winged creatures. That is the dragon-fly. I have frequently had an opportunity of dropping into company with the largest species (Libellula grandis) , in its aerial excursions in autumn by a particular roadside, along which there was a rushy-margined pool. At such times the writer has been occasionally on foot,—more frequently driving. On foot one has scarcely any means of judging of its speed, for in a moment it is past and gone out of sight. ”

“ During this conversation the dragon-fly had been preparing a bed for her host. The moss upon which the Child sat had grown a foot high behind his back, out of pure joy; but the dragon-fly and her sisters had so revelled upon it, that it was now laid at its length along the cave. The dragon-fly had awakened every spider in the neighbourhood out of her sleep, and when they saw the brilliant light, they had set to work spinning so industriously that their web hung down like a curtain before the mouth of the cave. ”