True Facts : Carnivorous Dragonflies

here among the reeds surrounding pounds that feel gross when you step in them lives some extraordinary creatures they are in the order Odana to and have existed for more than 300 million years with only minor changes here the majestic dragonfly but well that moments ruined and the damsel fly really I'm trying for gravitas here this looks like a stalker you'd feel sorry for all right well the dragonfly may have gotten lucky are at the naming ceremony these damsels are not of the in distress variety more like with me and I will bite your face off the ones you never really hear about in the fairy tales to understand the marvel of biology and engineering that is the Odin eight we must begin in the waters below their lives begin as cute little larval surrend type o nymphs unlike the caterpillar which takes a timeout in a sleeping bag to transform into adulthood Odin eight larvae continuously mold shedding their outsides up to 17 times before they reach their adult form these cute little babies are carnivorous hunters from the start when they are small they eat small things like the tiny crustacean ostracoda kind of looks like he's just eating the faces of those things more into the cookie than the cream as my mother used to say as they grow however and they devour almost anything they can catch with the Moxie of a drunk college student who found half a breakfast burrito in their mini-fridge some nymphs stalk their prey out in the open while others like skimmer dragonfly nymphs are ambush hunters taking a page from the bobbitt worm and hiding in their hidey holes before they pounce they will even on occasion eat their own and just a side note here but if you're planning on doing this start with the head but first cannibalism is not a good look for any species nobody wins Odin eight nymphs hunt using their labia sorry labium plural the important distinction the following has nothing to do with the human labia which thankfully has not evolved in this direction yet the Odin eight labium is like a weaponized lower lip at rest it is tucked up beneath the head like a bent elbow and it has the ability to shoot out suddenly and grab a burr impale unsuspecting prey pulling them back to the mouth in between two serrated edges or grasped in specialized pincers these labium are powered hydraulically water is drawn in through the butt as it should be and the good clenching creates enough internal pressure to cause the labium to pop out like the eyes on one of those little squeezy stress dolls you can try this at home all you need is a bathtub a muffin and a go-get-'em attitude nothing will happen but you might lose a roommate now the anus of the Dragonfly nymph is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill anus let's try this close your eyes go ahead and picture an anus put a little hat on it if you want whatever you're thinking right now it's not that that is your very own imaginary anus you're welcome you can keep it unlike the damselfly which has external gills the Dragonfly nymph skills are inside its but no judgment that is where it breathes at the end of the Dragonfly nymph abdomen it has something called an anal pyramid trust me don't Google this term this isn't a pyramid made from anuses that would be different this is five rigid structures that can close the nymphs bottom which helps it with the butt breathing but also assists in locomotion water can be expelled forcefully in a sort of fart jet allowing it to avoid predators chase prey or just do it for fun I would I'm doing it right now after up to six years in the water the ornate nymph is near its final transformation an intricate system of cubes within its body will have to transition from getting oxygen from its gills to breathing air through spiracles little holes in its body's external surface this hardcore little bastard leaves the water behind ventures out into the world it finds a perch and like a hipster trying to get out of a pair of tight skinny jeans it must wriggle and contort itself with one final sit-up it is free from the last shell of its larval skin I have to say that looks like it would be very satisfying like popping a zit except you are the zit and what comes out of it adult Odin AIDS may live for only a few weeks or up to a year and with mating season approaching it's time for fairy wings and fur kind of like getting ready for Burning Man but without the argument server who's bringing the weed and who's bringing the nutter butters the newly emerged adult is tenor allure soft and must harden while blood like hemolymph is pumped into its swelling veiny wings damselfly adults generally have long slender abdomens wide-set eyes and wings that rest like a roof they have names like unis or bargain seek cleaning his butt with a raindrop it's like a line from a poem dragonflies tend to be a bit more meaty eyes closer together and wings spread out at rest if names like Dave Carroll while human entrance to adulthood is marked by pimples useless hair on our genitals and college debt the adult Odin ape gets freaking wings we totally get screwed these two pairs of ultra flexible wings look a bit like stained-glass windows that were made by a coke addict being attacked by a squirrel who is also a coke addict each wing is attached to the thorax by separate muscles and can be maneuvered independently allowing it to fly upside down backwards basically however it wants reaching speeds up to 30 miles per hour to catch their prey they have traded in their labium for 3 pairs of legs each with a flexi flexi foot ending in a pair of claws the front legs are often conveniently equipped with little spiny brushes that are used to clean they're ginormous freaking eyeballs these magnificent balls of eye can see in almost all directions and are built from 30,000 highly sensitive pixel like a meta dia that can sense all sorts of light including ultraviolet wavelengths the ones we use to look for stains on motel room bedspreads which is why you never see a dragonfly in a motel very kissable lips on this one all of these parts wings legs and eyes come together in a symphony of death but these are no ordinary hunters in laboratory settings scientists have used their Sciences to observe Odin 8 sketching 90% of the mosquitoes they stalk their tiny little brain can hone in on a specific insect and appears to be able to predict where it's heading it then coordinates its head body and wings to find an optimal flight path which disguises its motion as it approaches this allows it to intercept its prey in a sort of a real ambush rather than just chasing it from behind from a scientists point of view this is a marvel of nature from the mosquitos point of view it's more like [Music] nomnom but the hunter can also become well dead lauren had ironically just taken up knitting joshua responded to a Craigslist ad for flying lessons and although libby was great at avoiding frogs she is currently under the windshield wiper of a Huey those that survived however are ready for sexy time which is slightly more complicated than whatever took place to make you the Odin eight penis is located on its second abdominal segment however its gonads the parts that produce sperm are located down on the ninth segment in technical terms there is a great distance between the nuts akin the Timmy like if you had testicles hanging down on your ankles like the little bells on an elven shoe to mate the male must put his gonads in contact with his penis to transfer sperm then using claspers on the end of his body he grasps a female's head she then curls up her genitals to meet his mid belly penis and what a penis it is it has specialised Bristol globes which are used to scrape out the previous suitors sperm so that things don't get mixed up think of it as putting that little divider in between your groceries at the checkout line and imagine that your groceries were sperm same same but different try finding this position on pornhub it's complicated sometimes you have to watch to figure it out now that's nice giving him a closer view at the end of the female abdomen there is a single genital opening and a small ovipositor which will be used to deposit her fertilized eggs after mating males will often stay attached or hang out nearby to help out but also to make sure that their sperm doesn't get scraped out by some other dude some females like this southern spread wing damselfly lay eggs inside the stems of plants even venturing under the water with an assist or diving solo this young couple is in search oh forget it for some a nice bit of mud will do maybe baby wants the pound skull or maybe the eggs are play right freaking over here and here however it happens the circle of life for the Odin 8 is now complete David David no I need you to push David all right now pick a place and push okay David Oh Jerome could you show David how to push all right David you realize that's making it harder for me not easier [Music]

Channel: zefrank1

Views: 6,650,549

Rating: 4.9548512 out of 5

Keywords: odonates, damselfly, dragonfly, true facts, ze frank, zefrank, truefacts, carnivorous

Id: wFAR3WggSRk

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/IAMA_Saguaro_AMA]

TIL: I am very uncomfortable with zoomed in dragon flies.

But interesting nonetheless. Once in Florida I saw a massive cloud of them eating (I assume) gnats and mosquitos. I’d never seen anything quite like it.

[u/reelznfeelz]

This can't actually be the "Dear kitten" voice over guy can it? Who produced this?

[u/TheBeefyMungPie]

This is fantastic. Please tell me that there are more of these.

[u/itchybut]

Saw this and it's led to an even deeper rabbit hole of True Fact videos ....Very entertaining.