This dragonfly is both messenger and missile

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/10/wenlock-edge-dragonfly-both-messenger-missile

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Like a glowing ember, the common darter dragonfly comes to rest on bare rock. Its stick-like abdomen, about 30mm long, is scarlet, and its transparent wings each have a deeper scarlet oblong mark on the leading edge, as if the insect uses them to define a space around itself in flight, or maybe the blur of dots confuses predators.

Insect markings and colours exert a deep fascination, and the quarry stones flicker with the spots, eyes and streaks of colour from late-flying speckled wood and gatekeeper butterflies, hoverflies and true flies. In the case of dragonflies, they are far older than the colours and markings of flowers that match them in intensity in the terrestrial world.

Insects use their bodies in ways that seem mysterious and bear marks that are cryptic, as if the original meaning for them has been lost or obscured. I once saw a nuclear missile – WE177A – which had insignia on its long thin body holding information about its origins, its capabilities and other things known only to those who could decipher the symbols. The darter, uncannily missile-like, is an ambush predator. It perches on preferred fence posts and rocks watching for flies drawn to warm stone, last flowers of field scabious and ripening blackberries – then darts off in pursuit. There is a pattern to this behaviour and every now and then it pauses on the same bare rock – a hot barren stage where it appears enigmatically alien.

Two weeks ago I was on the Swedish island of Finnhamn, where thousands of darter dragonflies gathered, having emerged from the brackish waters of the Baltic. At moments between hunting they settled on exposed rock, recharging from its radiant heat, like a cloud of bonfire sparks. This lone darter on Wenlock Edge is the survivor of a lost insect community, a relic of a swarm of scarlet sprites. Dragonflies have an aesthetic that crosses between otherwordly messenger and weaponry. They have a fragile, jewel-like beauty and a form that may have inspired the most terrible of human creations.

Twitter: @DrPaulEvans1