Dinesh's photos with the keyword: The Dragon Fly

.................... You rocket into the day. But at last, when wind flattens the grass, For you, the design and purpose stop. And you fall With the other husks of summer. “The Dragonfly” ~ Louise Bogan Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve, some 300 million years ago. Modern dragonflies have wingspans of only two to five inches, but fossil dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to two feet. There are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies, all of which (along with damselflies) belong to the order Odonata, which means “toothed one” in Greek and refers to the dragonfly’s serrated teeth. Dragonflies are expert fliers. They can fly straight up and down, hover like a helicopter and even mate mid-air. If they can’t fly, they’ll starve because they only eat prey they catch while flying. Dragonflies catch their insect prey by grabbing it with their feet. They’re so efficient in their hunting that, in one Harvard University study, the dragonflies caught 90 to 95 percent of the prey released into their enclosure. The flight of the dragonfly is so special that it has inspired engineers who dream of making robots that fly like dragonflies. Some adult dragonflies live for only a few weeks while others live up to a year. Source of info: Smithsonia