|
 |
Stream Bluet Damselfly - Enallagma exsulans
Order Odonata (Fabricius, 1793) -- libélula / Suborder Zygoptera Selys, 1854
-- damselflies, demoiselles
Family Coenagrionidae -- narrow-winged damselflies / Genus Enallagma
(Charpentier, 1840)
Live adult damselflies photographed in the wild at Winfield
Illinois, USA.
|
|
|
Stream Bluet Damselfly |
|
|
Stream Bluet
Order
Odonata:
Dragonflies and
Damselflies date back 300 million years, to the
Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era. Today, there
are about 450 North American species, and 5,000 in all.
They have evolved in to highly efficient hunters; their
freely moveable heads sport huge compound eyes -- in the
case of the dragonfly, the eyes nearly cover the entire
head -- and their sharp biting mouthparts, coupled with
their four powerful, independent wings make them
extremely agile flyers capable of snatching prey in
midair. These insects cannot fold their wings flat
against the body - dragonflies hold them straight out to
the sides, damselflies hold then vertically toward the
rear. Both families mate in flight and lay their eggs in
or close to the water. The mating ritual involves some
peculiar acrobatics called a mating "wheel."
|
|
