there was a dragonfly trying to run into the windows at my work that got caught in a spider web in the process and it bit me when I was trying to save it >:(
googled to see if it was a bite or a sting and yep! the bloody bastard bit me, how rude.
Dragonflies do bite, and they will bite humans, but only if you catch one and it’s trying to escape or defend itself. And only the largest dragonflies will be able to break your skin anyway.
-has a 99% kill rate, higher than all other animals
-humans “it bites???”
no shade, just v funny to me
-Named after mythological monster-
Once as a kid I ran my hand through some leaves on a tree, and a large dragonfly clamped down on the fleshy part between the thumb and the index. I shook my hand violently and looked at it. Fucker’s whole body was torn off, but the head was still there, just biting me. Shook again and it was gone. Fucking traumatic.
I was hiking with my grandson and the trail was post-rain and chock full of mosquitoes. We stopped for a breather and were talking face to face, our heads about a foot apart, mosquitoes everywhere. Just then a dragonfly slow flew right between our eyes and we both saw his “wing flutter” pulling tens of mosquitoes into his “wake” and just sucking them up like popcorn. It was cool to see.
I was flying my paramotor one morning in Florida. I didn’t notice it at the time, but something caught my eye while editing the video from my helmet camera. It was a dragonfly at somewhere around 1100-1300 ft AGL.
No idea what it was doing up there.
There’s loads of flying insects up much higher than that, they catch thermals. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see
I forgot, though. I was flying in the morning while there had been a lot of low level fog. There were no thermals at the time. The earth hadn’t started heating up yet.
There’s other kinds of updrafts (as I’m sure you know, flying seems like an especially dangerous hobby if you don’t understand wind and airflow) and they can travel quite a long distance in higher currents. There’s a butterfly that gets up to like 20k feet.
Thermals make a lot of sense. But I wonder how much of this is on purpose versus just and accident.
I can easily see an insect getting picked up and carried by an errant gust and then flung up by a strong thermal.
And storms can have nasty thermals.
At least it wasn’t Meganeura.
With single wing length reaching 32 centimetres (13 in), a wingspan around 65–75 cm (2.13–2.46 ft)…
The ones you REALLY don’t want to fuck around with are Giant Water Bugs.
What.
The.
Fuck.
Dragonfly-man? Worth it.
Yes they do. And they bite pretty damn hard for what looks like a little bug.
https://youtu.be/wFAR3WggSRk without trackers
Thanks, I forgot to delete that.
Same
DYK dragonflies spend 50 to 80% of their lives as larvae swimming in water.
Where they eat mosquito larvae. Real MVPs there.
I used to live in Edmonton AB. And you could tell when the Dragon flies came out because the mosquito population would drop overnight.
They are gonna be drone sized this year.
They’re also possibly the most efficient hunter on the planet, capturing 95-97% of the prey they go after
I got bit by a dragon fly once, and I wasn’t threatening towards it in any way. I just stuck my finger out in the hope that one of the many dragon flies would land on it, and one did, and then the fucker bit me for no reason and flew off
I was told their mouth is how they feel things, so maybe it was just feeling your texture.
They want to feel you from the inside
They wanna bite you like an animal?
It. gets. me closer to dog!
“What a weird stick I just landed on, what is this made of? *bite* Oh shit, it’s an animal!” *flies away*
I used to be pretty scared of dragonflies as a kid.
My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger. He said if you piss them off they’ll sting you and the stinger can go in one side of your wrist and come out the other.
Scared the fucking shit out of me.
My older brother told me that the back part of their body was all stinger.
sounds like a big brother thing to say.
I’ve saved hundreds of these guys from drowning as a kid. They would dry off on me, look at me, somehow looked very grateful and then fly away.
I was never bitten and I have held so many. I love them. Good karma.
Anything with a mouth can technically bite. What’s even weirder is that dragonflies cannot walk in their adult form
I am fairly certain Ive seen many of them walk when drying off on me
An article would say that they have working legs but don’t walk well. But they can move around short distances by moving their legs, just not very well.
That is my personal life experience as well.
Look it up
Sounds like they looked at the source directly.
Then it wasn’t a dragonfly
Probably one of those dragonwalkers
Lol, I know what dragonflys are. Is there even another insect that looks like them? They are quite distinct.
I doubt it’s relevant to the argument you’re having (as they have very similar anatomy), but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly
Oh wow that’s so cool. Thank you, now I have to figure out if I was saving dragonflies or damselflies!
I just looked it up and it said they can walk actually
