Subscriber Comments for
Dragonflies

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

DARYL	2011-10-22 10:58 AM
Beautiful photos, David! In the wild, it's hard to get them to hold still long enough for good shots. Nice!!!
STACE	2011-10-22 11:21 AM
Like you, I have always had a fascination for dragonflies. Some cultures revere them, others despise them. I happen to be amongst the group of folks who think they are amazing creatures, and believe in their positive symbolism of renewal, positive power and change. Dragonflies are a bit complicated and mysterious, and perhaps that's what's led to their bad rep in some parts of the world. They spend the majority of their lives in the water, as "nymphs", and then metamorphosis takes place. As flying insets they can fly up to 30 mph, and are incredibly nimble - they can twist, turn, stop on a dime, go up or down in a flash, hover and fly backwards. All this with almost no practice! Many in South America think dragonflies kill horses, many Europeans just think they are sinister, and the Swedes call them "troll's spindle" because legend has it trolls use them as spindles to weave their clothing. The Vietnamese study their flight patterns to forecast the weather; Native Americans and East Indians respect dragonfly symbolism, and it seems to me that lots of young women wind up with a dragonfly...I'm too old to get a tattoo, but if I was going to get one...
COMMENT 224821P	2011-10-22 01:29 PM
Great photos! Thanks for all the info on them too, very interesting subject.
SBJULES	2011-10-22 02:56 PM
Great pictures!
AQUAHOLIC	2011-10-22 03:38 PM
Fantastic images, really enjoyed them, thanks!
COMMENT 224905	2011-10-22 10:09 PM
I love the details of the wings. Thanks!
COMMENT 224932	2011-10-23 08:30 AM
I have had the privilege of seeing the dragonfly emerge from it's old body.......from looking like a dead insect stuck on a rock........slowly (the entire emergence took about a hour and a half) the tail begins to poke a hole out the back and drip fluid.........now this is so slowly to not alert predators..........it looks like a stick for quite awhile until, in one motion, the wings shoot out from it's stick body.............from there, the wings dry out some more, until, suddenly it flew into a tree close by........... When we looked closely at other rocks near the water, we saw other dragonflies at different stages of emerging! What timing! And yes, we also saw a lizard waiting nearby. This all took place June first. I wrote it on my calendar so i would remember to go up a trail, near a stream to try to see this occurrence again. This happened on the Rattlesnake Trail at the creek crossing.
COMMENT 224953	2011-10-23 09:51 AM
Spectacular images! Such beautiful colors, such delicate wings I love dragonflies, just not swarms flying towards me, as I have encountered a time or two.
LOURAY	2011-10-23 06:21 PM
Fish-spearing young'uns? The horror... Congrats to Barnaby for being squeamless.

67% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.

EDHAT COMMENTS POLICY