Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Drew Dragonfly Damselfly - another children's story and illustration



Drew Dragonfly Damselfly

September 9, 2007

Hi. My name is Drew and I am a dragonfly. Most people can't tell me apart from a damselfly. Maybe that’s why I have an androgynous name or a name that can be both for males and females. The truth is that damselflies like my friend, Dru or Drusilla can be both male and female. We like to confuse people and spell our names the same way.

I started out as a nymph in fresh water so did my friend, Dru the damselfly. We are practically the same insect just different suborders of the Odonata order. There are many varieties of us. We come in all sorts of sizes and colors. People like us because we eat insects that are bad for their gardens and we're pretty! We rarely bite people unless they touch our tummies. It doesn't tickle us. But we are stealth flyers so that hardly ever happens. We can fly as fast as 30 and 60 kilometers per hour or 19 to 38 miles per hour. We don't suck blood like mosquitoes; we eat them. I am a stronger flyer than Dru.

Anyway, Dru and I were hatched in a fresh water pond and as we grew we climbed out of the water shedding layer after layer of skin over more time than we will live as adults. When we were growing people called us nymphs or naiads. Those words come from Greek mythology and they are usually female but both Dru and I were nymphs and I am not a girl so I won't lay eggs. Dru happens to be a girl so she will lay eggs but not all damselflies are girls and not all dragonflies are boys.

People say I am handsome but I think my eyes are too close together. Of course, so are all dragonflies. Dru, as a damselfly has eyes wider set which I find much prettier. We both have four wings that are paper thin and iridescent, practically see through. Some people say they look like they are made of netting. I am very proud of my wings because they are quite strong so I hold them open when I rest. Dru says I am a show off and she never rests with her wings open.

I have been told that we have all sorts of nick-names all over the world. Some of them are: darning needle or devil's darning needle, ear sewer, mosquito fly or mosquito hawk, and skeeter hawk, snake doctor or snake feeder, spindle and many other variations of nick-names depending on where we live. But what's in a name?

Well I have to go now, because presently, Dru and I are over a meadow and she is calling to me that she wants to get back to a lily pad to lay her eggs.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Monica Monarch - children's story and illustration



Monica Monarch

May 2007

Hi. My name is Monica Butterfly. In my past life I was an ugly, yellow and black caterpillar. I don't remember it but I am told that all I did was eat and eat and eat the leaves of my milkweed plant where I was born. I made it ugly but I didn't kill it. People and their pesticides kill my beloved milkweeds.

I ate my milkweed until I was so big and full that I had to hang upside down on a leaf. In several days I turned into a light green and gold bejeweled chrysalis. I hung there for about ten days until I showed right through the outer cover of my cocoon. Then one morning, I peeled away my chrysalis and I had to hang there, upside down for a couple of days until my wings dried. That milkweed plant was a good incubator for me. When I saw it again it was growing all its leaves back.

Now I am a beautiful monarch butterfly and I can flap my wings and soar. I also stop and land on equally beautiful flowers so I can drink their delicious nectar. I am so sorry that all I do is eat plants so I try to give back to them by helping them reproduce. Unfortunately, I don't really spread plant pollen very well. My friends the honeybees do that job much better. Reproducing is my most important job which is another reason I land on my friends, the plants. That's where I lay my eggs.

All sorts of creatures want to eat me. However, because of the milkweed that fed me when I was a caterpillar, I am poisonous and don't taste good. The birds, bugs and beasts are very sorry if they try to eat me. My plain and dull cousins just hide on plants and another of my dull cousins, the viceroy has started to imitate my beautiful looks so that those other bugs and animals also think he is poisonous. He is clever with his disguise. We butterflies never attack anyone. We are peaceful creatures.

I live in North America but I have to go now because I must travel to where it is more warm and humid to lay my eggs to hatch my ugly, little baby caterpillars. Well, maybe they aren't really so ugly. I will live longer than my monarch relatives in Costa Rica or New Zealand because the weather is always right for them to lay their eggs there and they don't need to travel to make their offspring. They can stay in their lovely little countries but they don't get to live as long when they are grown up butterflies as I do. I live for about nine months which is just enough for me.