Dragonflies - a different perspective

Looks like a biplane coming in for a landing. Interesting.

 

Have I missed something here???? I don't see any pic at all, not even a little thumbnail. I even hit refresh and still same. *scratching head in wonderment*

 

love the first one, he's doing handstands. these little buggers are hard to shot. good job

 

Those are way cool shots - very well done!

 

The attitude of the dragonfly is very typical of the species. They use it on hot days simply to reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the body and therefore prevent the insect from overheating.
Reptiles to the same thing by lying with their head and tail in line with sun. If it is cold then they and dragonflies lie with whole of their body length facing the sun.
Butterflies bask in the sun, as you can see from some of the pictures posted recently. The reason for this is that they need their flight muscles to be at least 25C for them to fly. So they bask and pump blood through the wing veins, which is then warmed up and pumped around the flight muscle so as to keep it at an optimum temperature.
Moths cannot do this as most species fly at night when the air is cooler, so they do it by generating metabolic heat to get their flight muscles up to 30C.
Hope this helps with why the D/fly has taken up this attitude.

Best wishes. Bob F.

 

Very interesting Bob. Amazing what one can learn on the Cafe. 8)

 

Wow Bob that is so very cool. It sure opens my eyes to new opportunities.

 

Don good captures....

Bob thank you again for a very good lesson.. Frank is right, we do learn alot here.......

 

Thanks for saying you enjoy my snippets of information.

Actually this type of knowledge does help a great deal when trying to take pictures of insects. Look at Klaus's work relating to his extraordinary images of damselflies etc. The reason is simple. He gets up at some unearthly hour, finds his subject, sets up his equipment and fires away with all the time in the world. The reason being is that the critters are so damn cold that they are unable to move. And this is the secret.
I used to do the same. Up at 3.00am. Drive 100-200 miles. Arrive at destination. Find subjects and take their pictures and be home for 11.00am. By using this technique you can actually move dragonflies- butterflies etc. to the SPOT YOU WANT without any trouble whatsoever.

For butterflies the early morning is great, or a dull day. They will sit on the ground or their perch and bask to the weak sun and totally ignore you. They have no option but to sit their trying to warm up their flight muscles.

We say 'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.' At least Noel Coward did. Well all you will get by going out at this time of day to photogrsaph insects is a hernia due to all the rushing about. So much easier to go out early, find your torpid subject, chat to it and tell it you are going to take its photo, set up, take its picture, thank it for letting you do this, go home and have breakfast. or an early lunch!!

Best wishes.

Bob F.

 

Nice pictures, those I haven't catch yet.