Damselflies

“Look at this creature on my arm,” said my husband. He was floating in the lake, upheld by a purple noodle, a few feet from the dock. “It looks like a tiny dragon or a lobster.”

                               

I swam over. The bug on his arm—yes, definitely a bug—was tan, had six legs, and an incredible thin tail (or other body part?). It was no more than an inch long. I couldn’t identify it for certain. The bug soon jumped ship –or arm.

Later, we found another of those bugs on the dock. “But it’s dead,” said my husband.

I saw a couple of empty exoskeletons of dragonflies attached to the edge of the dock. I had researched them the previous year. Their bodies are also tan, but wider, shorter and shield-shaped. 

I began to wonder. Perhaps this “bug” is the nymph form of a damselfly? Although the damselflies look much like dragonflies in flight, the damselfly has a narrower tail and folds its wings when it settles. The dragonfly keeps its double wings open. But could the nymph stage of these related insects—both of order Odonata—be so different?

The next day I found two dozen empty exoskeletons clinging to the edge of the dock. And four pairs of delicate, electric blue damselflies flew in tandem, just skirting the water. “Those MUST be the empty shells of the damselflies’ nymph stage,” I told my husband.

A little research on the Internet proved the hypothesis. I remain amazed that those beautiful blue insects emerged from such an unattractive, wingless, and tinier shell. I have watched a Monarch Butterfly emerge from its chrysalis and then pump up its wings from two centimeters to their full length—truly an ordinary miracle. I hope someday to be lucky enough to see a damselfly emerge from its exoskeleton. Till then, I can’t do better than this You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcY9LQhdzkA