Dragonfly Pals – Interpreting Clues from the Environment

My friendly dragonfly clinging to the plant marker. Photo by Rachel Andrews

It was last summer that my first bug triage unit was formed. Two damselflies had gotten stuck in a spider web on a dock I was swimming near. Luckily, I was with a friend, so we each quickly freed one of the damselflies and began the laborious task of cleaning their wings of the sticky spider silk.

The damselfly I cleaned. Photo by Eric Vogl

I was immediately shocked by how trusting these creatures were. They both clung t...