A Useless Fact About Blue Dashers

   Weird thoughts dominate the brain at times.  A most commonplace thing can strike up a thought that is about as crazy as one can be.  I ponder how in the world I even know some of the things but thousands of useless facts are stored in among the cobwebs in the deep, dark depths of my mind.  That one sight or sound can bring things to the surface and then I ponder.  

  Today's trigger sight was a dragonfly.  I was coming up from checking the crab traps when I spied a beauty of a Blue Dasher Dragonfly.  How I even knew what type the thing was amazed me. The name just popped into the head along with a few other obscure facts about the critter. Since I was thinking about the bug, I decided to plop myself down and visit with it a while.

   An adult dragonfly eats hundreds of soft-bodied insects each day which makes me happy.  Right now, the Bayou is inundated with bugs of all sorts.  The mosquitoes are here in masses, termites by the tons and deer flies in droves.  I need just as many dragonflies to protect me from the others! The nymph of the dragonfly lives in still waters such as the Frog Pond and in the brackish water of the Bayou.  The nymph's appetite rivals that of the adult.  Mostly, the nymph feeds upon mosquito larva. 
  
  Most everyone knows the above facts about the critters but one almost grotesque fact popped into the head while thinking about the beautiful dragonfly.  While it is not so in the adults, the nymphs have a very unusual (almost disturbing) way of breathing.  Water is taken in and expelled through their anus.  Air is extracted from this water flow which also propels the critter through the water.  Soooo......dragonfly nymphs breathe through their butts!  Weird.....I am not sure how I even know that and, to be certain, I did a bit of checking.  Yep, that tidbit is a fact. SO.....now you know!  (And now that fact shall pop into your head every time you see a dragonfly!)