Eight is the New Four - _TNY_0106
The wings of dragonflies have a cell on each wing which is thicker and coloured and is known as the pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata). The purpose of the pterostigma is actually to assist in gliding by reducing wing vibrations at higher speeds. Tests have shown that gliding is possible at up to 25% higher speed because of the pterostigmata.
With dragonflies having four wings, they obviously have four pterostigmata, right? Well this happy fellow which I met at Stensjödal in Tyresta National Park is a four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) which obviously is a reference to these four wing spots.
Wrong. The four-spotted chaser actually has two spots per wing, giving a total of eight spots. The irony of the only species which doesn’t have four spots is being referred to as the four-spotted one is quite heavy if you ask me.
Eight is the New Four - _TNY_0106
The wings of dragonflies have a cell on each wing which is thicker and coloured and is known as the pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata). The purpose of the pterostigma is actually to assist in gliding by reducing wing vibrations at higher speeds. Tests have shown that gliding is possible at up to 25% higher speed because of the pterostigmata.
With dragonflies having four wings, they obviously have four pterostigmata, right? Well this happy fellow which I met at Stensjödal in Tyresta National Park is a four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) which obviously is a reference to these four wing spots.
Wrong. The four-spotted chaser actually has two spots per wing, giving a total of eight spots. The irony of the only species which doesn’t have four spots is being referred to as the four-spotted one is quite heavy if you ask me.