BEAUTY

IS TheA loveliest BEAST insect of the lake is one badass predator. Revealing thetrue dragonfly’s colours

Issuing an all-points bulletin for cottage country: aerial assassin on the fly. Con- sidered four-winged and dangerous. Under investigation by the U.S. Air Force. Notable features: stick-like physique, bulbous eyes. Frequents cottage docks. Goes by the alias “Great White Shark of the Sky.” A.k.a. Dragonfly. Yes, folks, the ethereal little insect we love to laud, entrancer and romancer that darts across our cottaging conscious- ness onto countless tea towels and coffee mugs, is a cold-blooded flying and killing machine. Superbly engineered for this By Catherine Collins singular agenda, it is ancient, ruthless, rapacious, and awesome. Enter the drag- Illustration Aaron McConomy on’s den and see for yourself. ››

Early Summer 2015 cottagelife.com 71 Drop- dead colourless THE ART OF A The dragonfly’s striking jewel tones—created by pigmentation and light refract- LONELY HUNTER ing off tissue structures in the body—usually vanish soon after death, leaving only a 4 drab shadow of its 2. MY, WHAT former self. BIG EYES YOU HAVE The better to hunt 1. THE you with, my dear. Compound eyes, Move FABULOUSLY over, monarch FLEXIBLE each with 15,000 ommatidia, or sin- 3. THESE Butterflies aren’t the FOUR only insect to migrate great The dragonfly’s two gle eyes, engulf the LEGS AREN’T head and see in vir- MEANT FOR distances. Many dragonflies do sets of wings can too. Over a few generations and do what most con- tually all directions WALKING Six spiny limbs cup many months, the wandering ventional fliers’ (ever tried sneaking to form a little bas- glider travels across the Indian can’t: each wing, up on a dragonfly?). ket under the head, Ocean and back, a record- controlled by its With colour vision grabbing and trap- setting marathon of own flight muscles, that outstrips our ping prey, and then 16,000 km. moves indepen- own, dragonflies relaying the prisoner dently, when the can detect ultravio- into the fearsome dragonfly so let light, meaning 5. IF JAWS mandibles. Essen- chooses, allowing that their eyes are HAD WINGS tially a feeding amazing manoeuv­ acutely tuned to the The dragonfly’s structure, the legs rability. When turn- light of blue sky and scientific order, are so far forward ing, the wings move are very sensitive to Odonata, means on the dragonfly’s out of phase with tiny prey moving “toothed one,” an body, they are good each other; when across it. apt, if understated, only for clinging to flying forward, the 4. STEADY reference to the surfaces. front wings flap up AS SHE GOES razor-sharp mandi- and the back wings The dragonfly bles that shred its down; when picking 1 would turn head victims. Most drag- up speed, they beat over heels without onflies catch and in unison; when the aid of its long, eat while flying gliding, they “lock” skinny abdomen, (handy when you’re into horizontal posi- or tail, acting as a a busy serial killer), tion. No wonder this stabilizer in flight. while some perch 6. DOING flying ace is the envy The 10-segmented and ambush. Mos- THE LOCO- of the aerospace tail also houses the quitoes, midges, MOTION In all insects, the industry (see “A-List insect’s reproduc- blackflies, and legs and wings Aerialist,” p. 74). 6 3 tive parts and is horseflies (even emerge from the capable of coital other dragonflies) thorax. But the contortions worthy are all on the menu dragonfly’s locomo- of The Kama Sutra of the toothy terror, tive hub is skewed (see “Hooking Up which snags its to crowd the legs at the Lake,” p. 76). targets with up to Fair- 97 per cent accuracy. closer to the head weather friend On a good day, it (for easier capture Like cottagers, drag- will rid the world of airborne prey) onflies are rather listless 5 of 50 to hundreds and push the wing on cool, grey days, retreat- of small insects. bases back (for bet- ing to leafy hangouts in the ter balance when trees until the sun comes 2 flying). The thorax out to warm their bod- is almost entirely ies and spirits. composed of mus- cle, powering the dragonfly’s prodi- gious aero-feats.››

For an amazing peek at a dragonfly hunting, blipp the fella above Early Summer 2015 cottagelife.com 73 COPYCATS AND COUSINS

A-LIST AERIALIST Dazzlingly acrobatic, dragonflies are among the best fli- ers on the planet. “They are superbly adapted to flight,” DRAGON OR says Dennis Paul- DAMSEL? son, an expert on ID TIPS FOR North American ODOPHILES dragonflies and the Sharing the same director emeritus of insect order with the the Slater Museum dragonfly, the dam- of Natural History selfly, as its name at the University of suggests, is daintier Puget Sound in than its bigger, more Tacoma, Wash. They robust relative. But can turn on a dime, fans of “odonates” climb straight up so will best distinguish high you lose sight the two suborders of them, slowly by their wing posi- cruise, then double, tion at rest: dragon- triple, even quadru- flies hold their wings ple their speed. Fly- outstretched, per- ing full steam ahead, pendicular to the says Paulson, the body, while most dragonfly clocks in damselflies fold at 60 km/h—more theirs upright over A chalk-fronted than 100 body the abdomen (just corporal (above). lengths per second. to confuse matters, At left, a damselfly (a bluet), with the exception is Zigging here and wings folded back. a group of damsels zagging there, the called the spread- dragonfly rather wings). Damsels flit, resembles a minus- lacking the powerful cule UFO—unparal- thrust of dragons, leled flying object, but they can per- of course. Which is form all the same why, for decades, fancy flight moves the U.S. Air Force and are decidedly has been feverishly non-vegetarian. ›› researching its flight mechanics, recently inventing a dragonfly-like drone for “reconnaissance objectives.” It’s just a matter of time before covert opera- /h m tives concoct the k 0 ultimate aircraft— 6 one that’s able to flap its wings and dispatch its foes Dragonflies dart with the dexterity sideways and down, of a dragonspy. back and forth, and

can hover and brake. COLIN JONES; MIDDLE, ISTOCK TOP,

74 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2015 PROUDLY PALEO The 300-million- year-old dragonfly 75 cm is often saddled with the pejorative “primitive” simply because it is “pal­ eopterous,” or ancient-winged, still bearing its ancestral features, THE BAD says Rob Cannings, SEED an Odonatae spe- If Dragonfly Sr. is a cialist and the cura- classy assassin, tor emeritus of Junior is a tiny thug, HOOKING UP entomology at the with a very different Royal BC Museum MO from its mature AT THE LAKE self. The terrifying Like single guys in Victoria. Whereas larva lurks under- 10 DRAGONFLIES everywhere, male more recently water its entire TO LOOK FOR dragonflies spend evolved insects, such life—from one to THIS SUMMER a lot of their time as bees and flies, five years, far longer hoping to get lucky, can beat their wings Springtime darner than the fleeting late May to late June thronging the extremely fast and weeks an adult gets shoreline as if it fold them flat over to fly—and has a American emerald were a pick-up bar. their backs (allow- face and personality mid-May to mid-July So persistent and ing them to crawl only a mother drag- rude are these long- into restricted Chalk-fronted onfly could love. tailed Lotharios that places), the dragon- corporal Half its head is females actually fly cannot. But so late May to late July masked by a huge, stay away from the what? says Can- hinged lower lip Four-spotted water to avoid nings. It flies circles Mating that, shades of Alien skimmer harassment until around these more American (aquatic version), May to Aug. they’re ready to “advanced” critters emeralds unfolds and flings mate, says Colin and, in fact, eats Swift river cruiser out with lightning Jones, a zoologist in them for lunch. Like June to Aug. speed to snatch and Peterborough, Ont., another proficient dispatch its victims. Prince baskettail and the vice-presi- prehistoric predator, Relentlessly vora- June to Aug. dent for Canada of the great white cious, laying waste the Dragonfly Soci- shark, the dragonfly Dragonhunter to lake insects, ety of the Americas. evolved early and mid-June to late Aug. minnows, and tad- The sex act involves excelled. poles, the juvenile Black-shouldered some nifty acrobat- delinquent eventu- spinyleg ics, where the male In the bragging ally morphs into mid-June to mid-Sept. grabs the female by rights department, a grown-up and the back of the head one of the biggest Canada darner begins a whole new with a clasping sex insects ever was a July to Sept. reign of terror as a organ at the tip of dragonfly-like pre- dragon in the sky. Autumn his abdomen, and cursor with a giant meadowhawk she curves her abdo- 75 cm wingspan. Aug. to Oct. men up to join a You wouldn’t want second set of sex that hitting your organs at the base windshield en route AmbuShhh!! to the cottage. of his abdomen, With wings that forming a romantic beat too slowly to heart-shaped loop. vibrate, dragonflies don’t The “wheel posi- buzz like bees, letting them tion” is often per- silently advance on prey. But you formed aloft, with will hear a rustle as they pass, the male flying and the sound of wings brushing fornicating at the each other as they same time (do not change mode. attempt at home). COLIN JONES; BOTTOM, ISTOCK TOP,

76 cottagelife.com Early Summer 2015