Fire-Breathing Dragonflies? Not Quite
Another day, another dodged bullet! Tropical Storm Fay brought badly needed rain and some occasionally strong winds to South Florida today. I guess Fay knew that I am scheduled to discuss a Hurricane Pest Prevention Plan this Friday, August 22 between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Eastern on WFTX-Fox 4 Cape Coral/Fort Myers. Their website is www.fox4now.com.
Later this weekend, I will be discussing mosquitoes, West Nile Virus and prevention tips on Sunday, August 24 during the 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. morning news on WPBF-ABC 25 West Palm Beach. Their website is www.wpbf.com.
Doing some reading this week, I read an article about a common insect that most people are lucky enough to see but usually not quick enough to see up close.
The dragonfly is one of those rare insects that doesn’t bite or sting humans, nor do they cause problems for crops. Instead, they look for water where they can enjoy helping to control the mosquito population.
Did you know they’ve been around almost as long as Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno? Older than dinosaurs, the dragonflies come in over 6,000 species – in all shapes and sizes.
Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often on floating or emergent plants. When laying eggs, some species will submerge themselves completely in order to lay their eggs on a good surface. It’s a little known fact that most of a dragonfly’s life is spent in a different form, beneath the water’s surface, using internal gills to breathe, and using extendable jaws to catch other invertebrates or even vertebrates such as tadpoles, fish, etc.
As for their unusual name, there is an interesting theory about its origin according to researchers at Texas A&M University, which can be found in a book written by Eden Emanuel Sarot in 1958 entitled Folklore of the Dragonfly: A Linguistic Approach. He theorized that the name dragonfly actually came about because of an ancient Romanian Folktale. In the folktale, the Devil turned a beautiful horse ridden by St. George (of St. George and the dragon fame) into a giant, flying insect. The Romanian names the people supposedly refed to this giant insect (when translated into English) mean ‘St. George’s Horse’ or, more commonly, ‘Devil’s Horse.’ According to Sarot, the peasantry of that time actually viewed the Devil’s Horse as a giant fly and that they may have started referring to it as the ‘Devil’s Fly’ (instead of Devil’s Horse). He stated that the Romanian word for Devil was “drac,” but that drac was also the Romanian word for dragon. He thought that eventually the Romanian name for the Devil’s Fly was erroneously translated to the English Dragon Fly and this eventually evolved into the “dragonfly!”
So keep an eye out and try to capture one on camera – I assure you, it’s easier said and done to snap a shot of a dragonfly! Do you have any great dragonfly images? Are you a fan of Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon?
Barry The Bug Guy
