Wildlife of the Waterways Dashing dragonflies

摘要

To the Japanese, they have long been symbols of courage, strength, victory and happiness. To Europeans, however, they have often been associated with the devil - hence the old English names for them of devil's darning needles and devil's riding horses. They have also been called, among other things, adder's needles, adder's servants and ox-vipers - a throwback to the distant past when they were believed to be linked to snakes. Many people wrongly believe they can inflict what expert Steve Brooks describes as "a fearsome sting." Indeed, "the sudden arrival of migrating swarms can provoke mass panic." Apparently a merchant ship off the Philippines was abandoned by its crew as one such swarm approached the vessel. They are dragonflies and damselflies - highly successful and evolutionarily ancient insects better known to zoologists as odonates or the Odonata. Of the 5,500 or so species of odonates so far discovered, around 2,700 are dragonflies and 2,500 damselflies.