Animalia

So I may have completely spaced posting my Fun Fact Friday yesterday. Apparently I was too excited about cookies. But, better late than never!

Today’s fun facts are about dragonflies. In the photo above, you can see a beautiful black winged dragonfly. I took that picture at my Grandmother’s house while visiting with my little miss this week. I thought it was so beautiful! I’ve seen many dragonflies over the years, but I don’t have any recollection of seeing one with such midnight black wings, and the beautiful iridescent body. So I looked up some info on it when I got home, and it inspired this post!

This particular breed of dragonfly is called an Ebony Jewelwing. Even it’s name is pretty! The males have this gorgeous coloring, while the females are more plain with brown wings and bodies. And now, some dragonfly facts:

Dragonflies have been on the earth for almost 300 million years.
Although it symbolizes different things in different cultures, it is widely recognized as a symbol of change. This stems from it being a creature of the wind, constantly moving and flowing.
In Japan, the Samurai considered it a symbol of power, agility, and victory.
In China, it represents prosperity and harmony, and is seen as a good luck charm.
Not all cultures viewed it with such an appealing outlook – Europeans originally called it a witch’s animal, believing it was sent to the earth from Satan.
When the British colonized Australia, it was called a horse stinger due to horses stamping and swishing their tails when dragonflies were around. In reality, the dragonflies were most likely helping the horses by eating the insects that were actually bothering the horse!