A big-eyed dragonfly is flying around the old apple tree now, 

 busily feeding upon flies, gnats, and mosquitoes. We call him a 

 mosquito hawk. 



His huge appetite is never satisfied. Around and around he 

 flies, reconnoitering for food. Soon a smaller insect comes within 

 striking distance; without once reducing his speed, the mosquito 

 hawk plucks his victim out of the air, using his legs as grappling 

 hooks. 



Few insects are as powerful in flight as the dragonfly. With 

 his streamlined body, with enormous eyes fitted with thousands 

 of small eyes, and with wings constructed like those of an air- 

 plane, this insect has marvelous flying skill. But although he has 

 six fully developed legs, closely bunched for clinging to objects 

 or for snatching insects out of the air, he cannot walk. Without 

 the use of his powerful wings, he is practically helpless. A 

 grounded dragonfly soon starves to death. 



This long-bodied insect with the gauzy wings does occasion- 

 ally alight during the daytime to rest or to eat a captured insect. 

 He'll settle down on a twig or a blade of grass to sleep through 

 the night and well into the morning. 



When a cool night chills his body fluid and a blanket of heavy 

 dew covers him, the dragonfly is almost catatonic. If you want a 

 close-up of him, go out into his haunts early in the morning, 

 when every branch and blade of grass drips with dew. He's harm- 

 less, and a live dragonfly at this hour is helpless. He may be 

 examined, handled, and posed for a photograph just as was the 

 one shown here without any display of resistance or hostility. 



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