Imagine you’re a fruit fly by a pond on a sunny day, whirring along in search of food or other flies. Suddenly, you’re scooped up, whisked to a perch, and efficiently devoured by a blue dasher dragonfly. For little flies like you, blue dashers have a 97 percent capture rate. For comparison, great white sharks only catch their prey 50 percent of the time. What makes dragonflies such successful hunters?
Stacey Combes and graduate student Christofer Brothers film dragonflies hunting inside a greenhouse to learn more about their technique. Combes and Brothers focus on “perchers,” species that wait on perches and take short flights to nab prey. [Read more…] about Dangerous Dragonflies: Fast & Furious
Through the ongoing implementation of the Reduced Mowing Policy — part of the New York State Pollinator Protection Plan — grow zones have become a staple at state parks and historic sites.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is seeking public input on the draft list of 
The great annual movements of fall include 
One winter day, while teaching a 
Sitting in a grassy field on a late summer day, I watched dozens of dragonflies roaming the sky. Their slender bodies drifted in and out of view as they rode the air currents. I thought of the cool autumn days to come and wondered where these dragonflies would go. 