Blue-winged Helicopter

My readers have patiently read my complaints in the last couple of posts about viewing wildlife in the jungle. Dragonflies were no exception. We were in Costa Rica in July because odonates are most abundant in the rainy season. But dragonflies withdraw when it is raining or even cloudy. What a conundrum!

My dragonfly chasing is only a half-dozen years old. I did not know much about Costa Rican dragonflies. I did know that Blue-winged Helicopters are perhaps the largest living odonates—at least in terms of wingspan. Definitely one of my target species—imagine my delight at our finding one on our third day in Costa Rica!

Some entomologists hypothesize that the Blue-winged Helicopter color mimics a foul-tasting butterfly, and thus birds tend to avoid them. As this creature flies through the forest, its dark wingtips look almost like spinning helicopter blades. These damselflies are web spider specialists. Apparently the spiders are distracted by the hovering black wing tips and never see the damselfly’s mandibles. Scientists, without distracting black spots, try to capture spiders with a remarkable lack of success.