The Undistressed Damselfly

Bluet Damselfly publicdomainpibtures.net

Husbandman and I went out for a swim this morning.  We went early before it got too hot.  As we floated back and forth from wall to wall of the quarry, the damselflies hitched rides on our arms staring at us with their massive eyes. I loved their skinny stick bodies with their sporty stripes of blue. Their transparent lacy wings folded back with a nonchalance I envied.   When I got home, I googled "skinny dragonfly" because I didn't know about damselflies.  Come to find out, dragonflies and damselflies are related.  They belong to the Order Odonata which means "toothed ones."  There are over 5,000 species within this order, with a third being damselflies.  The rest are the larger dragonflies, who lay their wings out flat when they're resting, somewhat pretentiously, if you ask me. This photo shows you some kind of bluet damselfly, which is the kind we saw this morning. The damselfly is a great hunter.  The stick body I so admired is actually its ten segment abdomen.  Damselflies have been on the earth for over 300 million years, so I guess they know what they're doing. They're now on my list of favorite insects.