Each eye has up to 30,000 facets!
I took this photo the day before my birthday in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Matt and I were camping there enjoying the beginning of summer. We had been out on a loop hike through the park when we came across this dragonfly sitting on a log. I was able to get in close to take a photo before it decided to fly away. I'm glad I did. Dragonflies have some of the most magnificent eyes in the world!
Dragonflies, including this chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly, have compound eyes. Each eye has up to 30,000 facets, or ommatidia, that are oriented in a slightly different angle. The ommatidia contain light sensitive proteins called opsins. They have either four or five different types of opsins which give them different visual capabilities than a human eye. Dragonflies, for example, are able to see ultraviolet light. The way that their opsins are oriented across their ommatidia are thought to provide them with an advantage when hunting. Blue and UV light sensitive opsins are in the upwards facing eye. This makes the sky very bright giving the dragonfly a highly contrasted background when hunting for prey, like tiny bugs. Could you imagine being able to see like a chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly?
This chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly is a female juvenile. I spent a few hours on iNaturalist and bugguide one day trying to identify this dragonfly. After examining hundreds-if not thousands-of photos of endemic species of dragonflies of Massachusetts, I finally loaded the photo into iNaturalist to ask the community if someone could help me identify it. Before I even had the opportunity to submit my inquiry, iNaturalist suggested that this was a chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly. Almost all of the photos that I had looked at had been of adult dragonflies. The photo identification of iNaturalist was able to go one layer deeper to cross-reference juvenile photos as well, and voila, the insect was identified. Sometimes I love technology.
Matt and I will often talk about the fact that we take photos of so many things without knowing what they are. One of the joys of running Wild Boyz Photography is that we get to learn more and more about the natural world around us. Think about the last time you went for a walk in the woods. Looking around you, how many species do you think you could confidently identify, whether it be an insect, an animal, or a tree. Most of us are able to identify very few. Hopefully with some of the education that we are providing here on our website, you'll be able to identify even just one more species the next time you go out for an adventure in nature.
It took hours to identify this chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly
Did You Know?
- The scientific name for the chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly is Ladona julia.
- These dragonflies like to hang out around humans because they feed on the insects that are attracted to humans.
- This dragonfly will eventually be black with two grey horizontal stripes running across its thorax and abdomen.
Pingback: Plains Lubber Grasshopper
[…] Chalk-fronted Corporal Dragonfly […]
Pingback: Halloween Pennant Dragonfly
[…] Chalk-fronted Corporal Dragonfly […]