Catch and release dragonfly found in my garage

Dragonflies have always seemed so ancient and mysterious to me - I'm spellbound whenever one passes by as they're so relatively rare here in Colorado. Nevertheless, this one ended up in my garage, somehow, so I captured it for immediate release outside. Dragonflies are stout-bodied, non-stinging insects of the order Odonata (suborder Anisoptera) which apparently prey on mosquitoes. We don't have that many mosquitoes here in Colorado either - I think because it's too cold and dry for them or maybe the dragonflies are too efficient!

Here's my personal web page about insects:
http://www.rogerwendell.com/insects.html

07-12-2009

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• insects
• drgaonfly
• order
• odonata
• suborder
• anisoptera
• catch
• and
• release

[Mistraker]

Came across your website. Glad to find someone else who doesn't indiscriminately kill everything he finds with an exoskeleton. The "strange spider" you collected from your home and released was an orb weaver of some sort. Totally harmless spiders, orb weavers make those big pretty net webs that stretch between surfaces to catch insects. Outside is better, as they'll catch more bugs.

And that's a millipede you found in Ecuador. Looks damaged, but if it survived to its next molt, it'd be fine.

[zeekzilch]

@Mistraker

Thank you for the very interesting information! I will add your comments to my insect page later this weekend. I'm also glad that yyou're in agreement about the indiscriminant killing of insects!

[davidsquall351]

I like the way Dragonfly wings look.

[zeekzilch]

I like the way Dragonfly wings look as well - very ancient and mysterious to me!

- Roger J. Wendell

Golden, Colorado

[Mistraker]

It was probably bitten by something that thought it look tasty, and then dropped. They excrete bad tasting/toxic fluid from their sides when harassed, and most animals know better than to touch them, so it may well have survived from that point on. That's why that species is brightly colored. They animals recognize them the second time around, and don't try to eat them again.