Thursday, June 25, 2015

Dragons and Damsels

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky.
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti


Do you know the difference between dragonflies and damselflies? Sometimes they are both referred to as "dragonflies," so it can be confusing. Damselflies have very slender bodies and their wings are together (closed) when they are resting. Dragonflies' wings are outstretched at rest. The San Diego Zoo has a page about them.

Eine Libelle - A Dragonfly - Libélula - Libellule
K. Günter Sturm

Skimming over my wife's flowers
by Joel Haas, sculptor

The Dragonfly
by Gustave Moreau

Dragonfly Insectothopter
Developed by CIA’s Office of Research and Development in the 1970s, this micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was the first flight of an insect-sized aerial vehicle (Insectothopter).

Dragonfly 1
by Dave Emerson

Dragonfly
by Dan Machold
Taken at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, TX

Art car, Seattle, Washington
by Joe Mabel

One more quote:
Clouds of insects danced and buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the piping of the song-birds. Long glinting dragon-flies shot across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies.
~Arthur Conan Doyle


Citizen Science in the Classroom: Monitoring Dragonflies
Migratory Dragonfly Partnership

3 comments:

Author Amok said...

Hi, Tabatha. I am going to recommend this post to a writer friend. Dragonflies are an important theme in her work-in-progress. Thanks!

Pop said...


Wonderful quote by Dante Rosetti and a beautiful drawing by Gustave Moreau.

Fascinating about the Dragonfly Insectothopter...and that it was called an "unmanned" vehicle. I would love to see a person sitting on it. But then the drawing by Moreau says it all. :-)

Retta said...

What a wonderful quote from Arthur Conan Doyle. I think of him as this great mystery writer, but never realized he could write with such delicacy and so poetically. A delight!