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Project Noah Nature School
Pachydiplax longipennis
Blue abdomen with black tip, black stripes on sides of the thorax, and a white face.
Resting in the early morning on a tiger lily. Dragonflies are cold-blooded and they raise their body temperature by basking in the sun.
Nearly all of a dragonfly’s head is eye, so they obviously have incredible vision! They have two compound eyes, and each eye is made of thousands of ommatidia. Together, the ommatidia produce a mosaic of “pictures”. Scientists don't know exactly how dragonflies process this incredible mosaic of images, but think it would be like a human having 10,000 to 30,000 photoreceptors spread out across their retina- only better! The ommatidia also contain light sensitive proteins called opsins, which allow them to see colors that are beyond human visual capabilities, such as ultraviolet light. The only part of their vision that isn't remarkable is the very back part of the eye, which has low resolution.
Spotted on Jul 3, 2017
Submitted on Dec 17, 2017
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