Dragonflies – marvels of flight and sight

Back in the 1950s, when we were young, we did not have a swimming pool. But our neighbours did. It was tucked away in a corner of the garden, surrounded by stone walls and pergolas where Catawba grapes twined and dropped their over-ripe fruits on the ground. Bees fed off the spilt juice – and unwary children stepped on them with bare feet.

We loved that swimming pool. The pool technology was primitive – a massive sand filter, the size of a small house, which together with the outsize pump, operated from the ‘pool house’. Despite the best efforts of the owners and doses of chlorine, the pool remained obstinately dark green and murky.

A Blue Emperor Dragonfly. Dragonflies were the first insects to inhabit our planet around 300 million years ago.

PHOTO: Karien Jordaan

Contrary to what one would expect, the deep depths of that pool was home to surprising numbers of incredible wildlife. Our favourites were the strange dragon-like creatures with an extendable ‘arm’, with which it caught other creatures. We had no idea what they were, and never thought to ask. There was no internet, no tradition of using libraries, and parents who were educated in the arts and the law and had scant knowledge of nature.

It did not occur to us children that there could be any connection between the strange creatures in the water and the dragonflies we saw darting and dancing and dipping their tails into the water. I learned much later that the creatures in the water were dragonfly larvae.

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