Dragon

Neurothemis ramburii ramburii

One thing I learned today was that scientific names should always be written in italic, to differentiate between common names and the silly names. Back in the UK, just about every bug has a common name, whereas over here in Indonesia, this is a 'papatong' and covers all dragonflies. The people that I have spoken to didn't even have a name for damsel flies, one farmer called it 'papatong kecil' small dragonfly.

I really thought that today's blip was going to be a mantis, in fact I had half a dozen great shots of different types of bugs that were all in contention, so I nearly didn't bother opening this folder for processing. I now remember taking the shot, as I saw the water droplets behind. I chose a shooting angle to get the head and the far wing tip in the focal plane. So disinterested in the subject, I only fired off a couple of shots.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't suddenly gone off dragons, it is just that there are so many! I have 360 keepers from the last three months. This will be very annoying to read if you are a UK dragon hunter, but I have to chase them with my feet incase I stand on one! But when it hit the screen and I cropped it a tad, it just jumped off the screen and booted the other keepers into the filing cabinet.

I was watching a wasp attacking a rather large spider. It didn't get its lunch and I didn't get the shot, but I learned that wasps fly in a very jerky and agitated fashion when in attack mode. This could be useful in future, if I see this flight action, it will be worth investigating. Also, if a wasp starts dancing around wildly in front of your face, it could be time to move on!

Dave