Sunday, August 4, 2019

Dragonflies

Going through Gordon Grice's Cabinet of Curiousities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World off and on with my three year old granddaughter, who is still a bit young for it. I learn that the immature dragonfly is called a "naiad."

Dragonfly naiads have no wings. They breathe through gills in their rear ends. When they need to move very fast to get away from a predator, they push a lot of water out of their rear ends at once and go jetting away. Basically, they propel themselves with fart power. (p 96)

I needed to know this today.

1 comment:

Dee said...

Fart power should be looked at more. In addition to being a largely untapped power source (all that cow methane) its now a transportation option, too.