This summer we opened the pool. However, we had a series of issues including several bouts of sickness and a lot of rainfall. It just got away from us and it wasn’t worth the added expense to get it back up and going again this season.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed some tadpoles in the pool. Nothing unusual, except that the tadpoles were rapidly disappearing – too quickly for them all to be changing into frogs. And then over the last several days I had noticed some “insect shells.” It was obvious that whatever it was had gone through some type of a metamorphosis and broken out of these old bodies. I suspected dragonflies. I had assumed that their eggs were laid in water, but I never knew exactly what a “baby dragonfly” looked like.
After some more observation and some research I found out that these creatures were indeed dragonflies [nymphs]. This explained the disappearance of the tadpoles, as apparently dragonfly nymphs have quite a taste for them, and these shells that I had found were called exuvia, which is the skin that the nymph had left behind. I watched one of these nymphs making its way out of the water last night, and this morning found this little guy all busted out and preparing for take-off. How exciting!
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