Hello ,

After spotting a dragonfly in a pool, I've been thinking about them the whole week. They are well known for their aerial acrobatic skills and the ability to fly at high speeds, however there is much more that makes them very interesting.

Dragonflies, both in their nymph stage (the water living immatures) and adult stages are ferocious predators with a very high hunting success rate. Thus, they are not just aerial acrobats, but they are fighter pilots built in plane form.

Have you ever wondered why dragonflies fall into the pool? I mean they are awesome aerial pilots, yet they fall into a pool. You might have heard that it is because they tried to drink water by dipping the tip of their abdomen and failed or that they are simply too old to keep on flying. Both of these explanations, however are incorrect. Because you will never see a dragonfly fall into a river, dam, pond, or lake.

Dragonflies keep their horizontal flight level by always having light on the top of their bodies and darkness at the bottom. Much in the same way where a plane level has a lighter blue half that always shows the sky and a darker brown half that shows to the ground. This aids the dragonfly to always be able to keep upright when flying and to counteract gravity.

When a dragonfly flies over a light blue or white pool the light reflected by the pool often becomes lighter than the sky. The dragonfly will then flip over and instead of counteracting gravity, it will assist gravity. With this final assisted fall, the dragonfly falls into the water, which ever so often will be its end.

If you would like to avoid this there are a few options. The first option is simple, don't clean your pool until it is sparkling white and the water is 100% clear. A second option is to add a dark coloured net over the pool, but make sure the holes aren't too big otherwise it won't work. A third, good, yet more expensive option, is to redo the pool into a darker colour such as dark blue or maybe even black.

Weekly Top Shot: Resting fighter pilot

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