Recent posts have been getting a little heavy on the theory and math so I thought I would lighten things up a little. If you like to fish damselfly hatches, we are right in the thick of things now.
But have you ever wondered what damselfly nymphs are doing during
their year of development before emerging? If things are going according to
plan, they are spending most of their time lying in wait for unsuspecting
critters to munch on. What’s really cool is how they capture their prey.
Damselfly nymphs have a modified lower jaw (labium) that they keep folded up
between their legs. When a small organism blunders within range, the labium
shoots out with lightning speed and the snags the critter, pulling it in to be
chopped into bite sized pieces as it is eaten alive. Yeah, kind of like
something out of a horror movie (the movie Alien comes to mind). Here is a
short video that shows how it all goes down (without sound):
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