ANOTHER PRETTY FACE

Late this afternoon there were at least a dozen damselflies resting on the deck. Instead of their usual nervous habit of flying off when someone is close, they all seemed to prefer to just lie there. How I wish one would have landed on a flower, or even a leaf, to make a more interesting blip; but no, they only gave me the dull gray deck for a background. I'm always intrigued by their unusual faces, which is why I couldn't resist another damselfly blip. Today was dull and overcast - a bit of sunshine sure would have helped brighten this shot.

Their large, multifaceted eyes can see nearly 360 degrees around at all times. The damselfly's eyes are widespread, while the dragonfly's eyes are close together. I read that dragonflies/damselflies live most of their life (approximately 3 years) in the larva stage in, on or near water. They aren't considered adults until they have wings, yet in the adult stage they live only 2 - 3 weeks. I imagine the group of them on the deck today were in the last stages of their lives since they seemed to have spent all their energy.