Dragonflies have long been loved in Eastern cultures, but that wasn’t the case in early Western cultures. These mysterious insects often were associated with myths about the devil, including the devil turning St. George’s horse into a giant flying insect after George slayed the dragon. Their English name reportedly is derived from the Romanian “drac,” meaning both devil and dragon. Although we like Dragonflies, we do admit that we often have a devil of a time trying to photograph and identify these whizzing jewels, two of which we “caught” at our Pond yesterday and feature today.
Our best guess as to the wide-eyed one above is that it is an American Emerald (Cordulia shurtleffii), part of the Green-Eyed Skimmer family. It never rested for a stationary image.
The slick metallic one above did rest, as we see. This, we think, is a female Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax Bernice). She flew away with amazing speed:
There came a time when both of these Dragonflies were in the same frame and a focusing choice had to be made:
Accurate identifications are not always possible in Dragonfly hunts, at least for us, but the game can be an enjoyable challenge. (Brooklin, Maine)