DRAGONFLY: savage beauty of a summer killer
MY six year-old daughter saw it first, letting out a cry of fright as it skimmed the surface of the small pond in the garden of her aunt's home - a dazzling, iridescent green dragonfly.
More striking than any dragonfly I had ever seen before, it soon began to land at intervals around the edge of the pond and delicately used its ovipositor tail tube to lay eggs.
It had come from nowhere on one of the last hot days of summer and amazed us with its power and beauty.
Despite their fierce reputation, dragonflies are harmless to humans and do not sting, though my daughter could not be reassured and kept well away. Later, trawling through dragonfly pictures back home, I soon learnt why I had never seen one like it before.
It was a rare species, a Brilliant Emerald, found only in the Scottish Highlands and parts of the South East.
Larger and more voracious than similarly shaped damselflies, dragonflies range over a much wider area.
While damselflies barely stray from the surface of the nearest pond or lake, mature dragonflies only use water to lay their eggs.
Apart from that, they go wherever prey can be found with butterflies, moths, and assorted other insects all snapped up.
Two huge compound eyes mounted at the front of their long cylindrical bodies give dragonflies a huge advantage, as do their speed, manoeuvrability and powerful jaws.
A dragonfly's head is also amazingly mobile and can even be rotated to help it catch and kill its prey.
Several species of dragonfly and damselfly co-exist in this country and it is occasionally difficult to tell them apart at a glance.
But besides its greater size and speed, a dragonfly holds its two pairs of wings in a rigid flight position when at rest.
The weaker damselfly tends to fold back its wings along its abdomen. Dragonflies are creatures of the summer, warmed by the sun as they shimmer and glitter in pursuit of prey.
For all their attractiveness, their life cycle is short, with some species living just six months from egg to death.
Perhaps less than two months of that will be as a flying adult.
Other species may live a few years but, aside from a few final months' flight, most of this time is spent underwater as a predatory larva.
A dragonfly larva is particularly savage, too.
It will eat anything that moves, including tiny fish fry and tadpoles, and can become the scourge of a garden pond.
When maximum growth is achieved after a series of moults, the bloated, ugly larva hauls itself out of the water and clamps itself to a reed or twig.
Then its outer skin splits a final time and the prettier dragonfly emerges.
Nineteenth century writer Dante Gabriel Rossetti marvelled:"Deep in the sun-searched growths, the dragonfly hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky."
Nice image - unless you happen to be a passing butterfly.
