How would you like to see the playback video of the time lapse shots of a dragon fly shedding its skin? A dragon fly is an insect which has large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings and an elongated body. A dragon fly typically eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants and butterflies. They are therefore valued as predators, since they help control populations of harmful insects. Dragon flies are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs”, are aquatic.

When the dragonfly emerges from its larval stage, the skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its old larval skin, pumps up its wings, and flies off to feed on midges and flies. A few days back, I stumbled upon a beautiful image series of a dragonfly shedding its skin and emerging from its larval hood. Courtesy of Wikimedia.org.

I thought it will be very good if a video was made by stitching together all the images. The following video is the result of half an hour work. Watch, study and enjoy the process of a dragonfly emerging from  its skin.