Once again it was time to clean the skimmer of the pond. When I lifted the lid to expose the basket I was greeted by 4 dragon flies. They were reddish in color and in different stages of joining the dry world of flight, bug catching and mating.
I called for my wife and sister (visiting) to come and see these miraculous creatures. As I waited for them I watched one fly off. The first flight of it's life and it just knew how to do it... that alone is pretty amazing to this blog writer.
So wife and sister showed up and were as impressed as I thought they would be. My sister ran back inside the house to get her camera. I thought that was a grand idea so I went in for my camera too... I didn't run.
The life cycle of a dragon fly begins when the female lays eggs in a body of water. They prefer slow moving water that would be found in most ponds and swampy areas. The eggs hatch into what is termed a "nymph." The nymph is a fairly ugly look'n character that starts life eating small organisms and as the nymph grows it eats larger and larger things. Depending on the species of dragon fly, the nymph may eat small fish and tadpoles not to mention mosquito larvae. Also depending on the species and weather conditions in the water, the nymph might live in the water for 4 or 5 years.
These dragon fly nymph's will not emerge from their watery home until the weather is appropriate for them to be out and about... that is to say, they aren't going to come out in the late fall or winter when they would freeze their little abdomens off.
When they mature and the weather permits they will emerge from the water and attach themselves to a vertical surface. That's when the magic becomes visible to us mere humans. The dragon fly, like a butterfly emerges and begins to pump blood to it's wings and abdomen. It is quite vulnerable during this period as it can't fly until the wings dry. When it's ready it just flys away in search of food and a mate.
These mature dragon flies will only live a few weeks. During that time they will mate and lay eggs starting the cycle anew.
Here are some of the pictures. The first 3 are from the Internet (plagiarized).
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| A dragon fly emerging from the nymph shell (for lack of a better word). |
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After emerging from the nymph shell the dragon fly will usually just hang on to the shell and start with making it's wings
functional by pumping blood into them and letting them dry. |
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| The wings start to unfurl not unlike the solar panels on a satellite. |
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You can see the dried body of the nymph on the left. Note the hole in it's back, this is where the dragon fly on the upper
right crawled out of the nymph. The light colored dragon fly is holding onto the nymph shell that it grew in. It sure seems like
a lot of dragon fly to emerge from a relatively small nymph. When they emerge, like the light colored one, they are soft and pliable. Some of the nymphs that are mature will look swollen and have colored abdomens on the underside. You can double
click the picture to open it and zoom in for a better look. |
That's the amazing short story of the dragon fly from my pond.
Whoohoo!
