Science
Related: About this forumNature’s Drone, Pretty and Deadly
African lions roar and strut and act the apex carnivore, but theyre lucky to catch 25 percent of the prey they pursue. Great white sharks have 300 slashing teeth and that ominous soundtrack, and still nearly half their hunts fail.
Dragonflies, by contrast, look dainty, glittery and fun, like a bubble bath or costume jewelry, and theyre often grouped with butterflies and ladybugs on the very short list of Insects People Like. Yet they are also voracious aerial predators, and new research suggests they may well be the most brutally effective hunters in the animal kingdom.
When setting off to feed on other flying insects, dragonflies manage to snatch their targets in midair more than 95 percent of the time, often wolfishly consuming the fresh meat on the spur without bothering to alight. Theyll tear up the prey and mash it into a glob, munch, munch, munch, said Michael L. May, an emeritus professor of entomology at Rutgers. It almost looks like a wad of snuff in the mouth before they swallow it.
Next step: grab more food. Dragonflies may be bantam, but their appetite is bottomless. Stacey Combes, who studies the biomechanics of dragonfly flight at Harvard, once watched a laboratory dragonfly eat 30 flies in a row. It would have happily kept eating, she said, if there had been more food available.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/science/dragonflies-natures-deadly-drone-but-prettier.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130402&_r=0
catbyte
(34,376 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)idwiyo
(5,113 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)I didn't know what creature was going to hatch until about 20 tiny seahorse looking things started hatching and when they unfurled their wings I was so excited to find out they were dragonflies, a sweet symbol of summer.
Love, Peace and Shelter.
lmsp
freshwest
(53,661 posts)BridgeTheGap
(3,615 posts)I once bought a fake dragonfly (very realistic looking) at a festival. It was mounted to wire that you could attach to a hat or backpack. As you walk, the faux dragon would bounce around. No flying insects (other than dragonflies) will come close to you.
formercia
(18,479 posts)When the Mosquito alights to drink some blood, the Dragonflies are right there to pick them off. Had one crawl into my hair to go after a Black Fly. Some people might cringe at that, but the Dragonflies are quite harmless. I used to walk in the field behind my house at Dusk. My feet would stir up insects in the grass and the cloud of Dragonflies swirling around me would snatch them out of the Air. It was a really neat experience.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)formercia
(18,479 posts)They know that warm-blooded creatures attract Mosquitos and Black Flies. You can feel their wing-beats as they hover close to your face.