Dragonfly facts

Dragonflies are divided into groups named for their hunting methods or bodily characteristics: emeralds, darners, skimmers, clubtails, cruisers and spiketails. The damselflies include petaltails, jewelwings, spreadwings and pond damsels.

What's the difference? Dragonflies are larger, with huge, close-set eyes, holding their wings out flat when they are at rest.

Damselflies are typically smaller, with wide-set eyes and a closed-wing posture.

They live in two worlds, carnivores in both. After hatching from eggs laid in the water or on aquatic vegetation, dragonflies begin life as larvae with powerful lower jaws, stalking prey or hiding in wait in bottom sediments. After spending two to three years underwater, the larva crawls out onto a reed to perform a Houdini-esque transformation into the flying insect. Left behind is a larval shell, or exuviae. After the adult's wings are dry, it flies off to hunt other insects with only a few weeks to eat, mate and die.

We can thank dragonflies for eating mosquitoes and other airborne pests. Despite their foreboding name they never attack humans, though those caught in nets will bite in self-defense; the larger species can draw blood.

Global warming is the biggest threat to odonates worldwide, Paulson believes. "Several seasonal wetlands in Eastern Washington that were prime dragonfly territory have dried up and I wonder what will happen if this drought condition continues," he said. "I see drought wherever I go on my travels."