cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/5632417

Study: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-44785-3

Twitter: https://x.com/samueltfabian/status/1752372075946299464#m

If you have trouble with Twitter I recommend using Nitter (search Github)

A male common darter, from the Netherlands.

I found a large amount of these dragonflies flying around the dunes near the coast. Most of them were found near patches of sand. Here is an example of a log with a few of them standing:

Some of them would stand in the sand and start digging. I also saw some standing while quickly moving their wings. And some of them were mating.

Another thing I noticed is that they were surprisingly unresponsive to disturbances. For example, I would put my camera right to their face and they would not fly away:

Yesterday was very windy and colder than previous days, and so I think maybe these were a bit slow because of the fast drop in temperature and/or being tired from flying in such strong winds. Or maybe they are just too concerned with mating to be worried about my presence.

Leveled up my bug spotting game over the weekend! Driving along a track in big desert; catch a moments glimpse of stripy pattern in a bush; bug alarm goes off; promptly halted our convoy for a cockroach appreciation session!

From today's chapter of "Nature, You Freaky" comes this fungally parasitized cicada I found today. I'm far from any kind of mycologist or parasitologist so if anyone's got more information I'd love to hear. It's almost beautiful, in a horrifying sort of way.