The Dragonfly and Damselfly are both active members of the species, which are valuable mosquito-control predators, patrolling freshwater bodies of rivers, ponds and lakes.
Their flight behavior and physical identity are both recognized with very long bodies attached to a double narrow set of transparent membrane wings. The front and back sets of wings are shaped slightly differently, making them easily leveraged to move the body back and forth to catch an elusive insect.
Local biologists are closely watching the Dragonfly, as well as the slightly smaller Damselfly, by looking into the weather and future climate change of warmer summers, dryer conditions and extreme weather events causing a flurry of insect pests moving into our region. Recently, the large increase of mosquitos is a challenge to the Dragonfly as illustrated in my drawing, swarming and buzzing boldly around its head.
Now there are looming alarming red flags for warm, summer waters staying at record levels as they have for the last several years, moving the lobster industry as well as the Striped Bass markets much farther north, all the way to the distant Gulf of Maine.
When we see this handwriting on the wall of changes to the balance of nature just over the horizon, it might mean that the effective speed and agility of the insect predation is somehow not the same.
In folklore from around the world, Dragonflies and Damselflies have been a symbolic significance of importance in some places but not in others. Regardless of their symbolic significance in my article, you might wish to contact the Massachusetts Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science program coordinator at (413) 212-3939 for more reassuring information.
By George B. Emmons
