WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:02.319 Your flat out and your to do list is growing 2 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:05.839 by the minute, but unfortunately, so is your headache. And 3 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:11.640 now you've gone from flat out to flattened. Luckily, Panadal 4 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:15.039 extra film coated tablets are boosted by caffeine and they 5 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.000 get to work in as little as ten minutes for 6 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.679 powerful relief. That's more than just paracetamol. That's one for 7 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:26.359 panadal speed based on absorption data. Contains paracetamol. Always read 8 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:27.280 the label or leaflet. 9 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:32.840 Oh hey, it's the male that you haven't opened, sitting 10 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.920 on your counter. Ali, Ward, this is ologies, this is dragonflies. 11 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:38.240 You did not know you needed an episode on that, 12 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:41.200 but here we are. Okay, this is h so good. Okay, 13 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:43.960 So this guest is the only dragonfly expert I wanted 14 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.079 for the job. I've waited years to chat with her. 15 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.520 And she got her undergrad degree at the University of 16 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:51.479 British Columbia Department of Zoology. She got a PhD at 17 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:54.600 Rutgers in etymology and is currently a curator at the 18 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:57.600 American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where 19 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.600 she serves as chair of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology. 20 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:05.120 Also a professor at the Richard Gilder Graduate School. She 21 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:09.040 has been the president of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association and 22 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:12.959 the Entomological Society of America, Big Deals, and the co 23 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.760 founder of Entomologists in Color. She knows dragonflies. We're here 24 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:17.519 to talk about them. 25 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:17.719 Now. 26 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.400 First off, oda nada sounds a little bit too much 27 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:23.480 like odentology, which is the study of teeth, and I 28 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.599 always got that confused. But there's a reason oda nada 29 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.719 means toothed ones, and it's the study of these big 30 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:34.120 winged beauties that cause a lot of feelings in us 31 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.159 to be discussed. We will do that in a moment, 32 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:38.200 but first, a huge thank you to patrons who support 33 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:40.280 the show at patreon dot com slash Ologies for as 34 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.480 little as a dollar a month. Thank you to everyone 35 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:45.480 in ologies shirts and hats and toats from ologies meerch 36 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:50.239 dot com. We have shorter, kid friendly classroom safe Smologies 37 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:52.599 episodes available wherever you get podcasts or the link in 38 00:01:52.599 --> 00:01:54.799 the show notes. Also, thank you to everyone who leaves 39 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:57.480 reviews for the show, all of which I read and 40 00:01:57.519 --> 00:01:59.840 they warm my heart and they help the show and 41 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:02.079 I prove it by combing through them and reading a 42 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:04.200 new one every week. And this is from I should 43 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:06.319 be sleeping twenty five, who wrote in an age of 44 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:09.800 brain rot and doom, scrolling ologies is a pinnacle of 45 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.800 hope and brain growth. I should be sleeping twenty five. 46 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:15.080 Thank you for staying awake long enough to write that. 47 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:17.439 So let's get right in this episode, which I'm putting 48 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:21.240 out on the night of the US election. I'm literally 49 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.439 recording this as ballots are coming in. Tomorrow is the sixth, 50 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:27.360 It's my birthday. I hope it's a good one. 51 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:27.960 I hope. 52 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.840 So, But for now, let's get into the differences between 53 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:34.560 a damselfly and a dragonfly. How fast they can dart around, 54 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.639 what cultures love and fear them, faking your own death, 55 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:42.960 the scariest babies in the world, Sending dragonflies to space, 56 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:47.560 sci fi aviation inspiration, mating choreography, attracting them to your 57 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:50.599 yard maybe to eat them. How big they were in 58 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:53.400 the age of dinosaurs, and why they were cooler than dinosaurs? 59 00:02:53.560 --> 00:03:07.560 With scholar, dragonfly expert, and thus owatologist, doctor Jessica Ware. 60 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:20.439 My name is Jessica Ware, and I use she her pronouns. 61 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:23.800 And you're in New York, right, yeah? Yes? 62 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.919 And what is it like working with the museum is 63 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:28.800 that Bonker. 64 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:32.000 It's awesome. I love it. I worked at Records for 65 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:34.680 ten years as a professor before coming here, and I 66 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:37.319 loved it there too, in a different way. But the 67 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:40.199 museum is kind of it's like than to do. It's 68 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:42.599 like the best. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing I can't 69 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:44.840 imagine a better job. It's really really fun. 70 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.960 Did you go there when you were younger? Did you 71 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:50.199 have like a history of going when you were or 72 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:52.319 when you would come to the city, Like, what's your 73 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:53.400 history with the museum? 74 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.039 Well, I'm from Canada, so I went to the Royal 75 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.319 Ontario Museum, the rom in Toronto, that's our naturalster museum. 76 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.319 Took my twin and I there quite often. I remember 77 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:06.039 seeing a gorilla diorama. It's like etched in my mind, 78 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.479 this gorilla diorama. So I know I went there when 79 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:11.960 I was short enough that I could barely see inside 80 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:12.840 the diorama. 81 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:16.639 So doctor Ware's first visit to New York's iconic American 82 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:19.680 Museum of Natural History was she was a wee one. 83 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.000 It was about twenty five years ago, but she did 84 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.720 a postdoc there working on termite evolution, and she says 85 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:27.600 she was nervous to apply for a full time position 86 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.480 at the museum because she thought she'd be a university professor. 87 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:33.279 But she just has undergrads in the summer rather than 88 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:33.959 throughout the year. 89 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:38.040 And I certainly never, ever, in a million years, thought 90 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:39.920 that I would work here. It kind of feels like 91 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.000 the same, but just with more time fulfilled work and 92 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:44.519 more encouragement for field work. 93 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:46.879 Obviously, I love bugs a lot, so I'm like, the 94 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.639 notion of being doing field work and getting to see 95 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:53.240 bugs in person as part of your job is like, what, 96 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:55.600 that's a job that's so exciting. 97 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.160 Yeah, there's a lot of them out there, and we 98 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.480 do a lot of stuff in the Arctic, you know, 99 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:03.079 sixty eight sixty nine degrees latitude, and then we do 100 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.800 a lot of stuff from the tropics, and they're both amazing, 101 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.680 like insect phonic insect communities, but they're very different. I 102 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.959 have the temperate Arctic and tropical stuff. 103 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:18.920 It's fun speaking of location, location, location, Where do dragonflies live? 104 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.759 Are there dragonflies in the Arctic? What's their range? 105 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:25.439 Like? Yeah, there's dozens and punt dozens in the Arctic. 106 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:27.720 There's six that are kind of whole Arctic that have 107 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:31.759 a circumpolar distribution, but there's over forty I think species 108 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.519 that live north of the Arctic circle. In general, I 109 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:38.079 would say like dragonflies and damselflies are found globally everywhere 110 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:39.439 except for it Arctica. 111 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.040 So the upper Arctic reaches of the globe, but not 112 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.600 in the snow and ice at the bottom of the globe. 113 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:47.680 Although the globe's physition, really I don't know why it matters. 114 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:49.519 We could be float in any which way, you know 115 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:49.920 what I mean. 116 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:53.639 I've collected dragonflies in Namibia, which is a very dry 117 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.959 kind of desert y environment. Like you can find them 118 00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:59.759 in deserts, you can find them in mountainous regions, temperate, 119 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:03.360 top arctic kind of you name it, they're there. They've 120 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:06.120 been around for a really long time, so they've basically 121 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.759 fit themselves into a lot of different niche spaces. 122 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:11.040 I feel like I have a flim flam in my 123 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:13.480 mind that they were at one point the size of 124 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:15.319 like a couch cushion, and I feel like that is 125 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:21.439 not correct. How big prehistorically were they So the proto. 126 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:25.199 Kind of odineta, the pre dragonflies and damselflies, they're a 127 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:29.800 group we call griffin flies. Commonly, they're in this family meganority. 128 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:32.240 They flew during the carbon differst period, so like three 129 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:34.519 hundred and fifty million years ago, and those were big 130 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:36.160 that I just had, Like each wing was like thirty 131 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:39.759 seven centimeters, so it's like it's a pretty big size individual. 132 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:43.240 So each wing was almost fifteen inches long, and they 133 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:47.319 were total about two feet across, weighing about a pound, 134 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.160 so about as large as a small hawk or like 135 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:51.560 a modern day crow. 136 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:56.680 But crown odinate, so they're not modern, uh dragonflies. Modern 137 00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:00.439 dragonflies and amplifies are younger. I think, you know, fifty 138 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:03.720 and twenty five million years old or so, so a. 139 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.279 Full one hundred million years later. 140 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:11.439 And depending on what you're measuring for size, right, there's 141 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.920 either megalar prepists, which is a damsel fly that weighs 142 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.560 almost nothing, but it has a pretty big wingspan and 143 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:22.319 a very long, very very thin threadlike abdomen because it 144 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:25.319 lays its eggs in tree holes. Oh, so that's a 145 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:27.279 very big one in terms of just like the total 146 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:30.759 measurements of centimeters. But then in terms of mass probably 147 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:34.319 it would be pedalarity, which are a different family in 148 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:37.800 anasop for the dragonflies, and some of the pedalarity that 149 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:41.839 live in Australia. Pedalara is one pedlar gigant. Yet it's 150 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:44.319 got that name for a reason. I mean it's like 151 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:47.120 a good size. It's hefty, you know, it's not as 152 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:50.519 long as megular papists, but it's it weighs quite a bit. 153 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:52.879 So depending on if you're going for like size in 154 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:55.639 terms of lengthen width or size in terms of mass, 155 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:58.160 then those are the two kind of biggest ones that 156 00:07:58.199 --> 00:07:59.240 we have nowadays. 157 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.560 When did they go from the gryffin flies to dragonflies? 158 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:05.319 And also who's naming them? 159 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:09.519 Because named after gryffins and dragons is like pretty baller, 160 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:10.480 It's like pretty great. 161 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.040 Yeah, those are some good names. I think they think that, 162 00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:17.480 like there was an English translation from a European language, 163 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:21.839 like a Slavic language for devil fly, with this myth 164 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:24.439 that there was like a devil's horse that took to 165 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.920 the sky and maybe that's how the name dragonfly came about. 166 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.800 Well they're not sure. So there's like a lot of 167 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:33.879 common names for each of the families. Diners are the 168 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.000 name the common name for Ashnity, and they have an 169 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.120 oppositor that is sort of long. Although to be honest, 170 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:42.759 it's not as long as some other types of dragonflies. 171 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:44.879 But anyways, some people thought it look like a sewing 172 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:47.360 needle because they lay their eggs and plant material, so 173 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:49.919 they're called diners. But a lot of the dams of 174 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.559 flies are related to their color. I mean, they're all 175 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.759 very colorful, but there's jewel wings and bluets for some 176 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:59.559 of the dams of fly. Names and the common names 177 00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:03.039 very in general sort of country back country. Although the 178 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.679 dragonfly community is pretty tight, so I think they're trying 179 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:09.039 to like come up with like more universal common names 180 00:09:09.080 --> 00:09:12.600 across the orders and across the order, across the families 181 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:13.080 and such. 182 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:16.840 Are there damselfly people and dragonfly people and do they fight? 183 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:21.639 So there's, like I think odinatology in general, really tight community, 184 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:25.559 really good vibes only, but you tend to focus on 185 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:27.799 one or the other, although there are some exceptions. But 186 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:31.360 my specialty are dragonflies, and my colleagues have buyb He 187 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:34.639 really focuses on the damsel flies. I think there's a lot. 188 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:37.639 I mean, there's three thousands of each of those groups, right, 189 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.279 the three thousand dams of fly, three thousand dragonflies ish 190 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:44.039 and they do slightly different things. They all have fresh 191 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:47.440 water namps, but the damselflies have gills that are external 192 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:51.120 and the dragonflies have internal gills. Dragonflies are kind of 193 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.519 stocky bodied, and some of them have lost their overpositors, 194 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:56.519 so they lay their eggs on the surface of water. 195 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:58.840 None of the damselflies do that. They all they their 196 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.919 eggs and plants, so I feel like already like they're 197 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:03.320 kind of a little bit different. 198 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:07.919 So both damsel and dragonflies have an equal number of species, 199 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:12.200 like a whopping three thousand each, and both their bibis 200 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:16.320 or their nymphs sometimes called naiads, live in water, and 201 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.960 we're going to get to those absolute killing machines in 202 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:23.200 a bit. But again, dragonflies have internal gills and kind 203 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:26.759 of fatter bodies. Both very cool. But let's say that 204 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.159 a damsel flies kind of like a coop or a 205 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.799 sedan while the other is an suv. 206 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:37.519 And I'm like firmly on team dragonfly. But I've published 207 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:40.240 some stuff with like Olafink, and I published on Megala 208 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:43.200 prepis on that really big damselfly. I mean, there's a 209 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.120 lot of interesting things in damsel flies. I guess I 210 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:48.679 just like I really love dragonflies. 211 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.879 Do damselfly people do their feelings get hurt when people 212 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:56.799 call damselflies dragonflies when there's the smaller, skinnier ones and 213 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.279 everyone's like, oh, dragonfly. Do you think there's a damselfly 214 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.120 researcher who's just looking at their hands and wistfully walks 215 00:11:04.159 --> 00:11:04.679 home crying. 216 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:07.679 I think a lot of that's just used the word dragonfly. 217 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.759 They mean both. But in general, if you said dragonflies, 218 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:12.840 people think that you mean all of it in Nata 219 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:15.480 and yeah, so I think they would. They would just 220 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:17.559 think it was normal. They wouldn't they wouldn't be sad. 221 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.159 Their life cycle is really fascinating to me. The nymphs 222 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:27.399 are bonkers from what I understand, and they look so 223 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.759 different from the adults. Can you tell me a little 224 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:35.440 bit about what their infancy and adolescence is like before 225 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:38.320 they become the dragonflies that we see around. 226 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:41.559 Yeah, for sure. Well, So, females lay their eggs either 227 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.720 in plant material and a pittic over position that's called 228 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:47.879 or on the surface of the water or the mud 229 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:49.840 exophytic over position that's. 230 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:55.840 Called damsel flies, and no fittic implants. Dragonflies exophittic, not 231 00:11:55.960 --> 00:11:57.639 in plants, and in. 232 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:00.960 Neither case the egg hatches when it developed in freshwater. 233 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.159 There's like a couple of examples of things that we 234 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:05.759 think are a semi terrestrial where they've been found kind 235 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:08.559 of like walking in the moss around freshwater. But in 236 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:12.360 general they're inhabiting freshwater. There's a couple that have burrows, 237 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:14.399 like some of the pedalarity that I talked about, they 238 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:18.919 actually have burrows. And there's Somatachlora and Emerald in North 239 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:22.399 America that utilizes crayfish burrows. But like in general, the 240 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:24.960 eggs kind of settle somewhere in the water column or 241 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.639 down at the bottom of the on the substrate. The 242 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:31.440 nymphs hatch, and if they're juvenile damsel flies, then they 243 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.360 have these external gills that they used to breathe with. 244 00:12:34.519 --> 00:12:37.360 And if they're dragonflies, then they have these internal gills, 245 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.519 these rectal pads that they used to breathe with. 246 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.679 Yes, rectal gills. Nymphs can stick their dump trucks in 247 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:47.639 the air and breathe through their butts. These ass gasping 248 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:50.600 babies are hungry. No one is safe. 249 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:54.559 They eat each other, They eat other aquatic insects, the 250 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.519 mosquito larvae, dabs, and fly larvae. May fly larvae cainterfly 251 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.759 livery things like that. They can also eat small fish 252 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.519 like minnows, and they can eat tadpoles and depending on 253 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:07.519 the taxon, some of them develop in like six weeks. 254 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:11.919 There's a migratory dragonfly called Pentella flavescence. The global wanderer 255 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:15.159 or wandering glider are two common names people use for it, 256 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:19.480 and it develops really fast in like six weeks. In general, 257 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:23.039 it kind of often takes advantage of like temporary water 258 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:24.840 that pulls up after rain, so it kind of makes 259 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:27.159 sense it would be selected to develop kind of quickly. 260 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:28.240 And then on the. 261 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.759 Other extreme, there are things that develop over years and 262 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:36.639 in some extreme examples people have said decades where the 263 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:40.159 juveniles basically are in fresh water for quite a long time, 264 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:43.799 kind of slowly molting and then becoming an adult. So 265 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:46.679 in the arctic systems that we are doing a lot 266 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:50.000 of sampling, and those juveniles are actually frozen in the 267 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:53.600 wintertime and they freeze in thaw freezing thought. And even 268 00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:56.639 in the temperate systems like in northern Ontario, like or 269 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.879 Minana lives, the lake freezes solids right, so the nymphs 270 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:04.279 are either burrowing down into the substrate or in part freezing. 271 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:06.960 So just like for all insects, right, there's these like 272 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:11.159 rise and fall of hormones, So juvenile hormone like those 273 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:13.279 things kind of rise and fall, and then when the 274 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:15.759 timing is right, the hormone levels are right, then they 275 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:19.399 have their final molt to adulthood. And what happens in 276 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:21.799 that case is they have a trigger to kind of 277 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:24.639 crawl out of the water, and they usually cling to 278 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:27.360 like some veg or like a boat house or a 279 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:30.399 dock or like whatever thing that they can cling to, 280 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:34.480 and then the adult kind of pulls itself out of 281 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:38.000 this larval skin, which are called xuvia. I think in 282 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:40.720 Europe they call them imagines, but anyways, are those are 283 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:43.440 kind of left behind. So often you can find axuvia 284 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.799 or imagines kind of in the veg around fresh water. 285 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:52.120 These exsuvia, in my unasked for opinion, are gorgeous to behold. 286 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:54.720 And if you look closely in the summer around lakes 287 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:59.519 or ponds, you might find papery, empty ghost shells of 288 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:01.879 dragon fine nymphs, and they look a little bit like 289 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:04.360 cicada molts if you've ever seen one of those. And 290 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.720 these little insect husks get their name eksuvia from meaning 291 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.399 things stripped from a body, and I like to imagine 292 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:16.360 that the young dragonfly was like felt raptured, just ascended 293 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:19.279 to fly through the air and then left their exuvia 294 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:20.519 behind like pants. 295 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.279 Then the adult has to take some time it's wings 296 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:26.919 develop in while they're crumpled up in these wing pads 297 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:29.919 while they're larvae or nymphs. And then when they become 298 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:31.600 an adult, they kind of shunt their hem on the 299 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:34.080 fat and they kind of stretch their wings out. They 300 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:37.559 slowly dry and we call harden up when they're first 301 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:40.480 emerged with a very soft body, very vulnerable, and then 302 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.000 once they've hardened up, then they take off and they 303 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.840 eat as much as they can. They build up fat stores, 304 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:49.080 and then they're they're adults, and they just do things 305 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:54.120 adults do, which is meaning dispersing and you know, laying eggs. 306 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:57.360 Do they even eat as adults or do they do 307 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:00.480 all their eating as little like hungry hungry hippos under 308 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:01.200 the water. 309 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:05.600 No, they eat a lot as adults, so do depending 310 00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:07.440 on the text on. Some of them have a lot 311 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:10.399 of spines on their tibia, and they actually are kind 312 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:13.240 of like bringing food in towards their mouth as they're flying. 313 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:16.799 Often if you see dragonflies, they do this behavior called hawking, 314 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.000 or they'll kind of be flying. Often you see it, 315 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.240 like if you live in suburbia, like over you know 316 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:24.399 a lawn, or if you're near a meadow in a 317 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:27.240 more rural setting, you see them kind of flying often 318 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:30.480 at desk or in the middle of the afternoon. That's 319 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.080 what they're doing, kind of gliding back and forth, just eating, 320 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:35.240 and they have to build up quite a bit of 321 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:37.840 fat stores, and they use those fat stores for their flight, 322 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:41.960 which is really energetically expensive. But then also like when 323 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:46.519 they're mating, some dragonflies and damsel flies are territorial, and 324 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:50.039 so they do these mating kind of dances or these 325 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.919 flights competitions, and you need to have a lot of 326 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:55.440 fat stores for that. Often what dragonflies will do is 327 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:58.000 they'll en damsel flies is that they'll just fly until 328 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:00.600 they'll use up their fat stores and then they just 329 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:04.599 kind of drop into the water. They did so like 330 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:07.440 in their best interests, they would be selected to kind 331 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:10.160 of be constantly eating to keep their fat stores high. 332 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:13.960 So they eat and they fly doing cardio until they 333 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.559 get fatally shredded, and then they just have a burial, 334 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:22.279 let's see, or at pond. I had no idea that 335 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:25.480 they were out there hunting too. How long typically, I 336 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:28.200 know it must range from like a day to like 337 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.559 ten years or something. But how long does dragonfly live 338 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:34.960 once it is an adult? How long is it out 339 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:35.680 flying around? 340 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.400 So it's always around the same. So the juvenile stage 341 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:43.680 can vary six weeks to maybe decades, maybe two decades. 342 00:17:43.319 --> 00:17:45.960 Who knows, right, that's bonkers. 343 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:48.079 But I think like five years would be like an 344 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:52.839 oldish And there's a couple of extreme outliers, but often 345 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.440 there one or two years, you know, three or four years. 346 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:59.319 That's just the nymph stage, either from six weeks to 347 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:00.319 a decad. 348 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:04.680 But then the adult stage is usually like one hot summer, right, 349 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:08.640 So usually in temperate regions it's like from May to 350 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:13.000 maybe October. There's a couple of examples individuals that were 351 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:16.839 around for several months, but it's definitely not usually more 352 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:19.559 than a year, and it would definitely be less than 353 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:22.279 a year in most cases. So the adult stage, they 354 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:27.519 really have this like solitary goal of dispersing, mating and 355 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.519 laying their eggs like that that's their whole thing. It's 356 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:32.839 not really doing growth or maintenance. 357 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.680 Right, So it's like a longer adolescence and a shorter 358 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:36.720 adulthood essentially. 359 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:39.799 Oh yeah, for sure, with the exception of, like I said, 360 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:43.119 the wandering glider or global wanderer, the pentelifa essence, it's 361 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:45.559 six weeks development time and then it lives for a 362 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.200 couple of months. So that's one where it's reverse. But 363 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:51.599 in the majority of cases than the juvenile is a 364 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:54.400 longer stage than the adult. For a lot of dragonflies, 365 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:55.200 Stam supplies. 366 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.920 I feel like I know people with dragonfly tattoos. I 367 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:00.279 know people who see dragon. 368 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.240 Do you I have one? 369 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:04.839 Gorgeous How long have you had it? 370 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:08.160 Uh, maybe ten years or something like that. I've had 371 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:08.799 it for a while. 372 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:11.480 So doctor Ware pushed up her long sleeved shirt and 373 00:19:11.559 --> 00:19:14.880 showed me what looked like a silhouette of a dragonfly. 374 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:17.920 Of course it was a beautiful artwork, so on brand. 375 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:22.519 You had already been studying dragonflies at that point. Yeah, yeah, 376 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:25.759 you were in it. You're like seeing dragonfly committed. 377 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.720 Actually I have a damsel fly. I don't have a dragonfly. 378 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.039 I was wrong, a damselfly tattoo. This was surprising. 379 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:35.799 It's an ebony jewel wing collapterrics maculata. But I picked 380 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:40.279 this one because the wings themselves are like black in color, 381 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:42.039 and so I thought it would be easy for a 382 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:45.000 tattoo artist to do it without Sometimes, like the venation 383 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.759 is very important. It's Karlai with like flight behavior, So 384 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.359 if they did the veins wrong on the tattoo, I 385 00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:53.759 would know that it was wrong that it couldn't fly right. 386 00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:56.480 So I was like a little bit anxious about having 387 00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:59.279 a tattoo that I was gonna dislike afterwards if the 388 00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:00.279 venation was a right. 389 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:05.519 So collopterix mechilata means beautiful wing. And this ebony jewel 390 00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:10.079 wing damsel fly has a slender, metallic blue green body 391 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:13.720 looks like a sports car paint chop, and wings that 392 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:18.240 look almost opaque, like a velvety black with subtly visible 393 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:18.839 vey nation. 394 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:20.720 That's what I was going to ask you. 395 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:25.400 How many times do you see dragonfly tattoos and things 396 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.240 in pop culture that are anatomically not right. 397 00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:31.200 Well, most of the time people put really long and tenny, 398 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:35.160 and dragonflies and damselflies have very very very small almost 399 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:38.559 like not visible and tenny. They're very very very small. 400 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:41.039 So if you have something with long antenna. It's usually 401 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:43.319