Written by Ranjit Lal |Updated: September 21, 2014 1:00:28 am
Slayers Gorgeous: The marvel that is a dragonfly
Damselflies are usually smaller and slimmer, more delicate and rest with their wings arranged alongside their bodies, and hover — virtually invisibly — low over water.
I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was when I first saw it. Clinging to a twig, pale, waxy cream, wet transparent wings folded, huge globular eyes glistening. Then I realised it was a freshly-emerged dragonfly still pumping the blood into its wings and waiting for them to dry. To think this trembling insect had spent the last two or three years as a “nymph” underwater — terrorising tadpoles and small fish — and looking like no nymph or naiad ever should. The dragonfly larva is a little monster, armed with a hooked-tipped prehensile lower jaw (called the labium) that flicks out like a penknife into its victim and draws it into its mouth. Gargoyle eyes, gills in its rectum and propulsion via jet-propelled enemas complete the horror story.
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