Consider
the Dragonfly
The thought of dragonflies
at a pond or lake is a reminder of lazy, carefree, summer days. However, the life
of a dragonfly is very active. When we spend some time and watch them carefully,
we see that their days are filled with activities, most of which are intended
to obtain energy to survive and reproduce.
Most
of the dragonflies we see at a pond or lake will be males. Each male tries to
establish a territory that he aggressively defends against any other males of
his species. Once this is done, most of each day will be spent defending his
territory. This requires a lot of energy, therefore he must also eat large amounts
of flying insects, such as mosquitoes. He also needs the energy of the sun to
keep his muscles warm. This is why you will not see many dragonflies on cool
cloudy days! His reward for successfully defending his territory is the opportunity
to mate with every female that enters his territory. His lifestyle requires
sharp vision and swift wings. Without them he will fail to acquire enough energy
to successfully defend a territory, and will not pass on his genes to a new
generation of dragonflies.
The females do not need
to defend a territory, but they do need to acquire the energy and nutrients
to produce thousands of eggs. The production of so many eggs requires that females
eat large numbers of small flying insects, just like the males. The females
do most of their hunting away from the water to avoid harassment by the males
until they are ready to lay eggs.
There are 67 species of
dragonflies and damselflies known to reside in Idaho.