Common Dragonflies and Damselflies

1DragonLayingEggs

Dragonfly laying eggs

Over the past summer, I have made it a goal to learn more about common dragonflies and damselflies in my neighborhood. I started observing and photographing them; bought a wonderful book titled: Dragonflies of the Northwoods by Kurt Mead and joined the Minnesota Dragonfly Society (MOSP). A new world of knowledge has opened up to me, and I have felt a lot of joy in connecting with these beautiful creatures.

A the bottom of this post is a link to a poster which I created with the help of Sam Barczak, a 7th grader at Hopkins West Junior High, Hopkins, MN and Dewey Hassig, and Julie Ikhaml both of Minnetonka, MN.

Mating Bluet (sp)  Mike Farrell

Mating Bluet (sp)
Mike Farrell

 

Dragonflies/damselflies  mate and lay their eggs in the water. Most of their life cycle is spent in the water as a larva ( up to two years), while the adults only live a few weeks.

Damselfly larva

Damselfly larva

Dragonfly larva

Dragonfly larva eating a soft shell clam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the following link  to see the Dragonfly poster: CommonDragonflies

 

This entry was posted in Connecting to Nature, Insects, Nature Notes, Photography/Art, Summer. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Common Dragonflies and Damselflies

  1. Carol Izad says:

    I loved this article and the photographs. I tried to get some photos of two dragonflies that hang out by my pool a blue one and a red one, but the pictures don’t do them justice. All I know about dragonflies is that when I’m in the pool they love to play. Their presences has changed my swimming experience. Sometimes they will land on the edge of the pool coping and allow me to come very close and admire them…they are so beautiful. It’s so special to be able to get so close and feel so connected to these little creatures. I did a collage of us playing in the pool but I don’t know how to up load it and share it with you…sorry

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 32 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here