Articles

Weird and Wonderful Dragonflies

By Anonymous

Dragonflies are probably the most beautiful of the flying insects. There are about 4,500 different varieties. They begin their life in the water, where eggs hatch into rather ugly brown nymphs. The time spent living in water varies from a few weeks to several years, but for all the varieties the day comes when the nymph suddenly has the urge to climb out of the water. It sits for awhile at the top of a piece of grass until its skin splits open and out comes a dragonfly! After waiting for its wings to become firm and dry, the dragonfly flies away, its lovely colors glinting in the sunshine.

Although they are very small, dragonflies are wonderfully designed for flying. Their two pairs of wings are very light, but strengthened by a network of tiny veins, which not only carry blood fluid to keep the wings stiff, but also nerves and oxygen. Some dragonflies beat their wings 40 times a second, and can fly at speeds of 40 km/hr (25 mph). Dragonflies are like tiny helicopters—they can even fly backwards! In fact, Igor Sikorsky, who first designed helicopters, got the idea from watching dragonflies.

Another wonderful thing about dragonflies is their eyes. Each pair of eyes is actually made up of as many as 30,000 separate eyes, each with its own lens! This enables the insect to see what is happening over a wide area, and spots every tiny movement without moving its head.

The oldest fossil dragonflies are just like dragonflies are now, except that they were much larger—75 cm (2 ½ ft) from wing-tip to wing-tip! So there is no evidence that they evolved from ancestors without wings. And surely those amazing eyes did not evolve. Dragonflies are another of the many wonders of God’s creation!

Our World Magazine 1996 Creation Resources Trust http://www.c-r-t.co.uk/