Libelle SVC

No cache is worth to risc your health!

Of the 5680 known dragonfly species, we only can spot about 85 in Central Europe. These insects already lived at the time of the dinosaurs. That proves fossil-founds dated back to the Pennsylvanian (about 323 million years ago). A species of that time "Meganeuropsis permiana" had a wingspan of 72 cm!

Nowadays dragonflies use to have a wingspan between 2 and 11 cm. Their unique flying machine enables them to move their two wing pairs independently – up to a maximum speed of 50 km/h! Too, their wing-uniqueness allows them to make abrupt changes of direction, stay in the air or even fly backwards (according to this principle, today's quadcopters were "invented").

Dragonflies are predators that catch their prey in flight. Some males are even cannibals. They can usually be found near still waters or swamps, because their larves grow up in water as their habitat.

In ancient Germanic-mythology these glittering flying artists were known as sacred of the goddess Freya (or the Vikings: Frigg). But Christian missionaries wanted to erase such ancient, pagan symbols and spread the myth that dragonflies were "deadly eye-piercers". Contrary to that widespread misconception, dragonflies are non-toxic and can’t sting! The "long tail" is not a sting, but part of their uhhh... mating organ and is essential to the flight stability!

In Danish dragonflies are called "guldsmed", what is translated to "goldsmith" and refers to our mythological bands to those beauties...
In Japan the dragonfly is the symbol of the Emperors power, because the legend says that the island(s) has been shaped like a drinking dragonfly.

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Safari task & logging condition:
• Find an image, a sculpture or a fossil of a dragonfly.
• Take a photographic picture of it and personalize this by holding someting unique into the camera.
• Upload the picture and name the coords of the place where it was taken.

As it is common sense: one cacher => one log => one place. Thank you!