Odonata

which from a lawn chair looks like there's a lot of dragonflies out there.

All dragonflies are classified under the order Odonata, the Greek word for tooth, which makes a lot of sense if you ever see their ferocious little faces up close.

But in the beginning, when it's underwater, a dragonfly larva is an ambush predator.

Mosquitoes, mayfly larva, worms, snails, tadpoles, and even small fish Its secret weapon is the labium, a hinged lower jaw that shoots forward, grabs something, and retracts.

Off the top of my head, there are four.

The stoneflies order Placoptera, the dragonflies and damselflies order Odonata, Our favorite, the mayflies, order Ephemeroptera, and the odd bunch, the true bugs, order Hemiptera.

I'm really focusing on critters that have an aquatic stage yet have an incomplete metamorphosis.

For example, grasshoppers have an incomplete metamorphosis, but tying an imitation that does not have wings versus does have wings is, in my humble opinion, a little over the top.

In the past few years, insect declines have been documented around the globe, including western and northern Europe, North America, neotropical countries such as Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, and even in the high Arctic region.

In a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports published in Biological Conservation, incidentally, a peer-reviewed science forum, scientists found that in terrestrial ecosystems, Lepidoptera, the genus, incidentally, for butterflies and moths, Hymenoptera, that's bees and their relatives, folks, and Coleoptera, which is maybe one of the largest insect groups on Earth, better known as the beetles, as well as four major aquatic insect groups, broadly known as Odonata, that's our dragonflies and damselflies that we, most all of us probably know, have suffered dramatic declines.

What's more, it's not just specialist species with restricted ecological requirements, like dependence on a small number of plants that have slumped, but many common and generalist species as well.

What really brought my interest into this subject was a blockbuster 2017 study that revealed a shocking 76% decline in the biomass of flying insects over a 27-year study at a protected area in Germany, catapulted the plight of insects into what I call the public consciousness, certainly into the consciousness of those of us that are interested in our ecology.

"'But you'll be very interested to know my name, I'm sure.

"'My name is Lovey Deer, of the order Odonata, "'of the family Labelolidae.' "'Oh, do tell me about human beings!' implored Maya, "'after she had introduced herself.' the dragon-fly seemed won over she seated herself in the leaf beside maya and the little bee let her knowing miss loveydear would be careful not to come too close have human beings a sting she asked good gracious what would they do with a sting no they have worse weapons against us and they are very dangerous There isn't a soul who isn't afraid of them.

Especially of the little ones whose two legs show.

The boys.

Don't get swatted.

So I'm hoping that aerial predators would chow down on them, things like damselflies and dragonflies, which they belong to the insect order Odonata, which means

toothed

jaws.