Dragonflies

Before

After

We witnessed an amazing, ugly, disgusting, beautiful thing last weekend at the lake. Thousands of creepy, crusty insect larvae crawled out of the lake and onto the shore and attached their disgusting legs onto blades of grass, lawn chairs, trees, the dock, and anything else that stood still. Then, like in a horror movie, large bug-eyed heads emerged out of the larvae's backs, followed by long thin bodies and folded wings.

The new creatures sat on their empty shells in the sunshine until their wrinkled wings straightened out.

Dad felt a larva crawling on his leg. He put it on his thumb and got an up-close view of the birthing of an adult dragonfly.

The dragonfly is my favorite bug. In fact, my Chinese name is Pu Xiao Ting which means humble little dragonfly. Believe it or not, we ate deep-fried dragonflies (wings, legs, and all) while we were in China only because, there, you eat what you are offered. They're crunchy and sharp, their legs get caught in your teeth, and they have a creamy center. Mmmmm

The flight of a dragonfly is more complicated than you may realize, what with two sets of wings and six legs to coordinate. The fresh crop of dragonflies fluttered in the air all weekend.