Last week I had shared a single photograph of the Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens. Thought I might share some more today.
Maybe an entomologist or a dragonfly expert might be able to tell me better: but dragonflies appear to be quite bipolar, having two extreme states of behaviour. One is where they’re constantly flitting about, changing direction mid-air and never resting. A couple of times I have kept my eye on a single dragonfly and found that they can do that for over ten minutes. Maybe much more.
The other is where they become living statues, sometimes even non-responsive to light contact. I am not sure whether these are metabolic states of the dragonflies, age regimes, or something else entirely. So they’re either hyperactive or they are zombies. Coolio.
Dragonflies are quite colourful and pretty as they come, but I always found the lack of any substance at the back of their head a bit… disconcerting. [Flashback to the Temple of Doom, with chilled monkey brains for dessert. Yum.]