Dragonfly on my verandah

Writing a blog after a long time. Now this blog is about dragonflies that often visit the garden of our co-operative society. I had a chance to click some pics with my Gionee P5W smartphone when it sat on my verandah and I think the snaps have a lot of clarity. Though dragonflies have a number of similarities with damselflies, which belong to the suborder Zygoptera, damselflies are lighter in weight. Damselflies also fold their wings when taking rest but dragonflies keep their wings straight and distant from their body. Dragonflies have a lot of agility as fliers which damselflies don't have.

About dragonflies

Dragonflies are quite special type of insects. It belongs to the order Odonata and infraorder Anisoptera. Their hindwing is wider than their forewing and they have big multifaceted eyes. They have two pairs of wings that are both transparent and powerful. They have a long body structure with occasional color spots on their body. Some of them even feature very bright colors, which give them a blazing appearance as they fly. There are around 24,000 ommatidia in the compound eye of an adult. They are predator insects, both as nymphs and adults. They mostly inhabit wetlands and have a number of uses in drug manufacturing. Dragonflies are also depicted as cultural symbols with different implications in many countries throughout the world. Next blog coming up soon! See you till then.

Photo album link: The photo album link is given below: <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsusmitbphotography%2Fposts%2F1471084896257197&width=500" width="500" height="626" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

The various natural wonders of our co-operative society garden

I live in Baishnabghata Patuli Township in the southern suburbs of Kolkata and similar to most other citizens of this picturesque township, I live in a multistoried co-operative housing society. The name of our society is Keramik and it is situated in Patuli J block. There is a garden bordering our co-operative society and it is full of various plants like Rangan (Ixora coccinea), Jaba (Hibiscus, both yellow and red), Telakucha (Coccinia indica or Coccinia grandis), Lily, Nayantara (Catharanthus roseus), Karola (bitter gourd) and so on.

Various birds also visit this garden such as sparrows, Common mynah, Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer), Spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis), and Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) or Doel.  

Insects and other animals like shield bugs, snails, butterflies, moths, garden lizards, and dragonflies are regular visitors of this garden. On two occasions (August 13 and September 9, 2015), I had the opportunity to take some lovely clicks of butterflies and dragonflies perching on the leaves of the plants of this garden. The photo album links are given below. Next blog coming up very soon! See you for now.

Photo album links: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1041014505930907.1073741891.672990912733270&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.814907748541585.1073741863.672990912733270&type=3