Post your Dragonflies and Damselflies

The last of the year, Autumn Meadowhawk. Haven't seen any around for a while, so suspect the cold weather has done for them since, like all dragonflies, they are ectothermic - dependent on the environment to maintain body temperature.

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Probably a stupid question, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Anyway, my dad could catch dragonflies by (he said) hypnotizing them. He would start making large circles with his hand, as as he approached the circles would get smaller and smaller until he was close enough to catch them. My brother and I tried it many times without success.

Then my Entomology instructor in college told us the same thing. We were on a field trip, he walked up to the group with a dragonfly. None of us actually saw him do it, but he did have the dragonfly.

Any of y'all ever heard of this? Or is it a mind trick to get folks to walk around in a field making big circles with their hands?

Terry McDaniel wrote in post #18953248
Probably a stupid question, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Anyway, my dad could catch dragonflies by (he said) hypnotizing them. He would start making large circles with his hand, as as he approached the circles would get smaller and smaller until he was close enough to catch them. My brother and I tried it many times without success.

Then my Entomology instructor in college told us the same thing. We were on a field trip, he walked up to the group with a dragonfly. None of us actually saw him do it, but he did have the dragonfly.

Any of y'all ever heard of this? Or is it a mind trick to get folks to walk around in a field making big circles with their hands?

Never heard of that or seen it, but Google knows all, and I found this link.
https://thedragonflywo​man.com …01/02/a-bizarre-behavior/

Scroll down to a comment by James Fitter and you will see an account of how to hypnotize a dragonfly. It is very similar to your description. Still doesn't mean it is true, though!

This guy does it: https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=ajpNDNoK0x0

Took him three tries though.

Terry McDaniel wrote in post #18953248
Probably a stupid question, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Anyway, my dad could catch dragonflies by (he said) hypnotizing them. He would start making large circles with his hand, as as he approached the circles would get smaller and smaller until he was close enough to catch them.

I've never done that, but I can get pretty close to a local species and after they take off to catch something to eat they'll come right back to the same spot. I've held my finger out over that spot and they'll land on it.

Archibald wrote in post #18953305
Never heard of that or seen it, but Google knows all, and I found this link.
https://thedragonflywo​man.com …01/02/a-bizarre-behavior/

Scroll down to a comment by James Fitter and you will see an account of how to hypnotize a dragonfly. It is very similar to your description. Still doesn't mean it is true, though!

Interesting! True or not, I get the impression the idea comes from Japan. Apparently, there is a lot of symbolism attached to dragonflies in Japan. See link, which also has a lot of other good information on DFs.

https://dragonflywebsi​te.com/dragonfly-symbolism-japan.cfm

DLeeT wrote in post #18953705
Interesting! True or not, I get the impression the idea comes from Japan. Apparently, there is a lot of symbolism attached to dragonflies in Japan. See link, which also has a lot of other good information on DFs.

https://dragonflywebsi​te.com/dragonfly-symbolism-japan.cfm

Interesting info in that link!

"You were not supposed to see me"

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/DSC01129-X2.jpg&lb=1&s=A

Common Darter

johnfosteruk wrote in post #18955449
Common Darter

Hosted photo: posted by johnfosteruk in
./showthread.php?p=189​55449&i=i56018608
forum: Macro

Migrant Hawkers

Hosted photo: posted by johnfosteruk in
./showthread.php?p=189​55449&i=i157417284
forum: Macro

Nikon D3200, Sigma 105 Macro F2.8 OS, Natural light.

Beautiful shots. Welcome to the forum! Lee

DLeeT wrote in post #18955619
Beautiful shots. Welcome to the forum! Lee

Thanks Lee, it's nice to be here. In fact I don't know why I haven't found the forum before

Terry McDaniel wrote in post #18953248
Probably a stupid question, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Anyway, my dad could catch dragonflies by (he said) hypnotizing them. He would start making large circles with his hand, as as he approached the circles would get smaller and smaller until he was close enough to catch them. My brother and I tried it many times without success.

Then my Entomology instructor in college told us the same thing. We were on a field trip, he walked up to the group with a dragonfly. None of us actually saw him do it, but he did have the dragonfly.

Any of y'all ever heard of this? Or is it a mind trick to get folks to walk around in a field making big circles with their hands?

I developed a technique a long time back for reliably approaching dragonflies. I can get so close that I can touch them with my finger without them flying off and can often get them to climb on my finger. This is with fully active dragonflies which will fly off when you are some distance from them. I've demonstrated this multiple times and done several workshops on this. I first described it on this forum thread here, although I actually developed the method over 25 years ago. (the images linked to are missing as I updated them with full resolution files, but I can post them in another post.
https://www.dpreview.c​om/forums/post/2861926​0

I put an old video of it up demonstrating I can do it in 2011 on my Flickr photostream.
https://flic.kr/p/9XqX​U5

I believe the YouTube you linked to works for the reasons I explained when detailing my rapid habituation technique. What I mean by that is my method involves rapidly habituating the dragonfly to your presence in steps, and that circling your finger round like this simply habituates the dragonfly to this circling motion, and the dragonfly then fails to notice that this spiral motion is getting smaller and closer to it. For those who aren't familiar with the concept of habituation, which is widely used by wildlife film camera people, it means getting an animal used to you. In animal behaviour it means getting an animal used to a stimulus that would usually cause this animal to flee. I first came across the idea when I was an ecology undergraduate studying a module on ethology, animal behaviour. It involved snails on a glass plate. If you tapped on the glass at first the snails would disappear into their shells. But if you kept tapping on the glass the snails will eventually ignore the tapping.

Dragonflies most probably do not recognise you as an person, you are just a large object. They most probably distinguish between a bush swaying in the breeze, and a possible predator like a bird by it's movements. A bush circles and waves around a central axis, but a potential predator carries on moving towards the dragonfly in a steady motion. Most animals including those with higher cognitive abilities can soon work out from your movements that you are zeroing in on them i.e. a predatory movement, and so become alert to a possible predatory attack. This is why the slow steady approach often described in photography books, web pages etc, doesn't work and the insect or whatever flies away. However, if you move in small increments (these increments have to be smaller as you get closer) pausing between, the dragonfly does not notice you are getting closer. You can sway around a bit. All movements have to be in increments, including lifting your camera up. It's no good getting in close and then lifting your camera to the eye in one movement as this will scare them.

The reliability of this method depends on the degree of your incremental movements. It is almost completely reliable if you move in very small increments, but this takes an inordinately long time and demands a lot of concentration. Plus of course the dragonfly might anyway decided to have taken off by time you get there. So you have to compromise and through experimentation use bigger increments. Some species and individuals are more tolerant, others more wary. So if it keeps failing you will have to make the increments smaller. The reason the increments have to be smaller as you get closer is that the same degree of movement increases the angle of the movement across the dragonfly's vision as you are closer.

Below are examples of dragonflies I got to climb on my finger. All were fully active. To get an insect to climb on your finger you simply have to touch it's feet from the front and it will walk forward. The Four-spotted chaser was a mistake. I'd actually grasp the stem of the plant it was on to turn it round for a better angle after using my approach technique. However, I accidentally touched it's front feet so it climbed onto my hand.

SteB wrote in post #18955751
I developed a technique a long time back for reliably approaching dragonflies. I can get so close that I can touch them with my finger without them flying off and can often get them to climb on my finger. This is with fully active dragonflies which will fly off when you are some distance from them. I've demonstrated this multiple times and done several workshops on this. I first described it on this forum thread here, although I actually developed the method over 25 years ago. (the images linked to are missing as I updated them with full resolution files, but I can post them in another post.
https://www.dpreview.c​om/forums/post/2861926​0

I put an old video of it up demonstrating I can do it in 2011 on my Flickr photostream.
https://flic.kr/p/9XqX​U5

I believe the YouTube you linked to works for the reasons I explained when detailing my rapid habituation technique. What I mean by that is my method involves rapidly habituating the dragonfly to your presence in steps, and that circling your finger round like this simply habituates the dragonfly to this circling motion, and the dragonfly then fails to notice that this spiral motion is getting smaller and closer to it. For those who aren't familiar with the concept of habituation, which is widely used by wildlife film camera people, it means getting an animal used to you. In animal behaviour it means getting an animal used to a stimulus that would usually cause this animal to flee. I first came across the idea when I was an ecology undergraduate studying a module on ethology, animal behaviour. It involved snails on a glass plate. If you tapped on the glass at first the snails would disappear into their shells. But if you kept tapping on the glass the snails will eventually ignore the tapping.

Dragonflies most probably do not recognise you as an person, you are just a large object. They most probably distinguish between a bush swaying in the breeze, and a possible predator like a bird by it's movements. A bush circles and waves around a central axis, but a potential predator carries on moving towards the dragonfly in a steady motion. Most animals including those with higher cognitive abilities can soon work out from your movements that you are zeroing in on them i.e. a predatory movement, and so become alert to a possible predatory attack. This is why the slow steady approach often described in photography books, web pages etc, doesn't work and the insect or whatever flies away. However, if you move in small increments (these increments have to be smaller as you get closer) pausing between, the dragonfly does not notice you are getting closer. You can sway around a bit. All movements have to be in increments, including lifting your camera up. It's no good getting in close and then lifting your camera to the eye in one movement as this will scare them.

The reliability of this method depends on the degree of your incremental movements. It is almost completely reliable if you move in very small increments, but this takes an inordinately long time and demands a lot of concentration. Plus of course the dragonfly might anyway decided to have taken off by time you get there. So you have to compromise and through experimentation use bigger increments. Some species and individuals are more tolerant, others more wary. So if it keeps failing you will have to make the increments smaller. The reason the increments have to be smaller as you get closer is that the same degree of movement increases the angle of the movement across the dragonfly's vision as you are closer.

Below are examples of dragonflies I got to climb on my finger. All were fully active. To get an insect to climb on your finger you simply have to touch it's feet from the front and it will walk forward. The Four-spotted chaser was a mistake. I'd actually grasp the stem of the plant it was on to turn it round for a better angle after using my approach technique. However, I accidentally touched it's front feet so it climbed onto my hand.

Hosted photo: posted by SteB in
./showthread.php?p=189​55751&i=i115539890
forum: Macro

Hosted photo: posted by SteB in
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forum: Macro

Interesting and lovely shots! Thanks for posting. Lee