• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    ahem

    I LOVE dragonflies! Getting a tat of one, my first!

    If a dragonfly locks onto your happy ass, you’re meat. 95-97% hunt success ratio, highest of any animal on the planet. Strongest flying insect, with 4 independently operating wings. Watch one fly in slow mo. That is what Frank Herbert had in mine when he wrote ornithopters into Dune. Their head is basically a giant, binocular eyeball, a complete target-seeking combat package.

    They do love them some mosquitoes, that’s a fact. Not going to say our swamp in the boonies is mosquito free, but it’s a swamp, it’s loaded with dragonflies, and there ain’t many around. Anything smaller than them, which is to say, everyone else, is fair dinkums. They’ll start horking down on what ever part first fits in those gigantic jaws, alive or dead, no matter. Every watched one eat? Not for the faint of heart. Those jaws are like a squared-off, champing vice. Crazy nasty ass dragonfly, dragonfly don’t care, dragonfly doesn’t give a shit. We got tactical smart missiles, phased plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks… We got dragonflies!

    Want to “pet” one? Hold very still and stick your finger out, they’ll eventually use you as a helipad. Woman across the street is a got damned dragonfly whisperer, got a dozen pics of her holding one. Here’s one chillin’ on my wife, rode half a mile upstream with us, our very own combat air patrol.

    Anyway, I think dragonflies are kinda cool.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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      1 month ago

      You’re the person that makes me exhale In relief when i am at social gathering with an uncomfortable amount of people around.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      1 month ago

      That was absolutely glorious and insanely witty. I’ve been called witty before and this had me feeling joyfully outclassed. I thought I was in for some crazy copy pasta but it just ended up further educating me on WHY dragonflies are so cool.

      (And yeah damselflies, psh. Bugs. Seeing a dragonfly is a GOOD day.)

      I hope this becomes a copy pasta. It was legit hilarious and awesome to read.

      Dang it I’m really hoping you’re having like *a really good day. * Thanks for writing this. :D

    • SinkingLotus @lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Sounds like you might be interested in reading a manhwa called “Jungle Juice”.

      A bug killer spray called “Jungle Juice” is being sold. After using the spray, they gain a “complex”, which essentially turns them into at a human-bug hybrid with whatever they killed. The main character killed a Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

    • dave@feddit.uk
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      1 month ago

      They are super cool and super territorial by all accounts. We were in a pop-up pub in a field and this guy kept coming to sit on our hands. I guess we were in his spot…Common Darter

      • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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        1 month ago

        Anything that move and smaller than them, even fish, as they’re ambush predator, by launching their dino-grabber-like mouth part to grab their prey and send it right into their mouth. They also have jet butt. If the adult is the airforce, the nymph is the navy.

    • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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      1 month ago

      I think Dragonflies are pretty cool too. Thanks for the fun facts!

      In return, here is the best dragonfly photo I have taken to date.