A series of dragonflies caught and pinned by a coworker. I don't know the species, but I am hoping Renee will! (as she blackmails the hapless Renee into doing the identification) (thank you, my friend!)
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13 comments:
Hi! Now I can leave a comment! I'll be the Queen of Comments, since I've not been the Queen of Blogging lately.
Damn it, I wasn't first! I was first on your first blog, if I recall. Oh well. I know I can't be the King of Comments, because I don't comment enough ... perhaps I can be the Duke of Rejoinder, having a seat in the House of Comments.
Please disregard that silly comment. It was silly and uncalled for.
Ouch. You're mixing different species in the same collection box! :-) These are nicely pinned. Want a job at the Museum?
Here are my "guesses". Top to bottom, left to right.
Twelve-spotted Skimmer or Common Whitetail-female (could be either, hard to say from picture), Widow Skimmer-female
Widow Skimmer-male, Common Whitetail-male
Slaty Skimmer-female, Blue Dasher-female
Do I understand that these animals lost their lives so they could be admired by having their corpses pinned in a dish?
How much greater their beauty would have been living their lives and captured via pixels... how sad.
Anonymous:
Yes, it is sad. You don't know a thing about me - I'm not the one who pinned them. Personally, I do as little as I can to harm other creatures. I don't feel the need to roll out my credentials to someone who won't leave a name.
It might behoove you to know something about the person you are posting to before commenting. I really don't appreciate your assuming things about corpses and such. I'll leave your comment up, though; I do understand and agree with your thought process. I do not agree with your making anonymous comments when you haven't a clue as to who I am.
By the way, that was me responding - owner of the dragonfly-murdering blog.
(tongue very much in cheek)
My comments had absolutely nothing to do with you as a person as I dont know you. Your entry was very clear that a coworker pinned them, not you.
My post was strictly about the sadness I felt due to these animals losing their lives under the posted circumstances.
If my words struck a nerve with you for whatever reason, I am sorry about that. Perhaps you are saddened by their deaths too.
Either way, I meant no harm. Peace to you.
Anonymous -
Thank you for your response. It was considered and kind. I took your first comment personally, and perhaps I shouldn't have.
Yes, I am sad about these creatures' deaths. I am also a realist about how things are. Not going to roll out the creds, but I really do care about living things.
The person who pinned these guys is a good person. Also? There are all kinds of details you can't know about someone who writes a blog. Assumption is and always has been a bad idea.
If I could live without hurting anything or anyone, I would. Just so you know.
Anonymous,
Well now you’ve flushed me out of hiding. I am the masked murderer of said dragonflies. Before we get on with the witch hunt however, please allow me to have some parting words.
Let me first say for the record, that I too do as little as I can to harm other organisms. We all have to end the lives of other organisms after all in order survive. While for some of us this may be limited to plants alone, we take comfort in fact that these organisms do not feel pain—that we know of. Insects too, do not feel pain—that we know of. Their nervous systems are vastly inferior to those that do. All organisms (including plants) fight to survive regardless as this is the very basis of ‘survival of the fittest.’
Having said that, I can assure you that each of these animals was killed as “humanely” as possible. After being captured they were each put into an induced state of diapause. Diapause (which I will politely assume you are unaware of being anonymous) physiologically speaking, is a state of hibernation or dormancy which is a natural state particularly among insects. This is how they get through the winter. In other words they take a nap naturally and just never wake up.
Now to further beat this dead horse—err dragonfly…insects make up more than a third of the animal kingdom. By removing single individuals from each species they are hardly being eradicated or even endangered. That’s obviously an understatement.
Finally, yes they are now hanging up on my wall to be admired next to my stag, moose, trout and pheasant. I’m kidding. Seriously though, when all of that is said and done, I keep them as it would be just wasteful to throw away such beautiful creatures as I’m sure you’ll agree. Also, this is the only true means of identification for insects. If we attempted to do so without first killing them, we would inflict far more damage to them. The idea is not to damage the insect so that the specimen may be easily cataloged and preserved so that more insects do not die than have to for the cause.
So now, get on with it and make it quick and painless please!
- Torin a.k.a. The Dragon Slayer
It was not my intention to put anyone on the defensive. However, if you do happen to find yourself there (on the defensive that is), you may want to check things out; take a look around; analyze what you are seeing or feeling and figure out if there is "something" there worth knowing. If not, well, as goes the old saying, nothing ventured...
Once again, my comment had nothing to do with the writer of this blog, nor Torin a.k.a The Dragon Slayer (sic); it was strictly about the animals themselves.
Whether they feel pain (or not); how many of them exist (or dont); the matter in which they lost their lives; the purpose for their demise... all moot when relating to the reason for my original comment.
I bet each of those animals valued their own lives as much as we each value our own. If we could somehow communicate with them and ask them if they would willingly like to enter a state of dispause never to wake up, I think we all can guess as to what their answer would be.
Anyways Blog Owner and Friends, I will darken your door no more. Peace to each and every one; dispaused or otherwise. :)
Anonymous,
I believe your comments are both justified and valid. Please don't mistake my sarcastic tone for one of defensiveness though. You must understand that these are the very fundamentals of both entomology and of the scientific community. How else are we to learn about the world around us if not to slow it down in order to study and observe it? These processes are ones that help us to better understand our neighbors (and their interactions with each other) on this planet in the long run. Think about that one before you jump on it.
While your comment as to their preference to live or not is noted it is also anthropomorphism. We have learned through scientific research what areas of the human brain are responsible for these concepts. We also know that the insect nervous system (which requires the dispatching of such specimens in order to learn such) is lacking such components and processes. ‘Thought processes’ are virtually nonexistent. There is no PIXARification in the insect world, merely survival. For this reason I will agree that your comment about their preference to survive has merit, I would also refer to my first comment in pointing out again that all organisms fight to survive, including those that were sacrificed to give you and our breakfast this very morning. Believe me, I’m not attempting to appear facetious or insulting when I say this. It’s just this whole topic is saturated with relativity. Survival of the fittest. This is nature’s failsafe. To use the analogy, Mother Nature doesn’t know right and wrong, as humans comprehend (or think we do). This is not an attempt to undermine your statement as the intent of it was clear. Trust me, I get it. I understand what your saying…the bigger picture. It just seems to me that such sincere efforts are important enough not to be wasted on the bottom end of the chain. Fight the real enemy—apathy and the victims of it. Be sure that before you make such accusations , it 's not really a case of mistaken identity/intention; make sure it’s not really friendly fire.
- Torin
And to Torin, I say - Bravo.
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