Backyard Zoology · 28 March 2018
2018-03-28T16:39:06+11:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/posts/pfbid024ReR3u7FRaRd2z1uisp2Vk2PSWpopKmvXHu9t665DJQaD3txmBC57UZFtnCXEvEkl

Husby thinks I have a tendency to be negative. He's wrong of course. But nowhere is my positivity and optimism more obvious than when I'm in the presence of a large dragonfly: I always assume that I've stumbled across the endangered Giant Dragonfly, Petalura gigantea. So far this year I have found one on no less than 3 separate occasions. 

In reality I have found it a grand total of zero times. But over the weekend during a walk in the Blue Mountains I was totally and utterly convinced. This was it! Finally, I had found the totally rare and exceedingly lovely dragonfly. Except it wasn't. Again.

Still, when one minute you're enjoying the greenery and the scenery and the next minute you're being buzzed from all directions by a very large insect, it's pretty cool. And it was a new insect for me too so double yay! 

I can't find a lot of information about this particular species but anecdotally these guys seem quite territorial; we rounded a corner and it was there, we walked a few steps and it changed direction and flew at us again, we walked a few more steps and it spun around and approached us again from the other direction. And by approached I mean got up into our faces. Now I'm not saying it was aggressive but it certainly had husby running around squealing in the same way he does when he sees a bee! 🤣🐝

Sydney Mountain Darner Dragonfly
Blue Mountains National Park

#dragonflies #bluemountains #bluemountainsnationalpark #darner #insect #entomology #backyardzoology