Page 88 - Wonderful Creatures: Children! Have You Ever Thought ?

The body of a dragonfly has a ringed

structure that gives the impression of
its being covered with metal. A dragonfly, whose color may vary

from ice blue to claret red, has two pairs of wings on its back,
one at the front and the other at the rear. While flying, the two

front wings move up as the two rear wings move down.

Sikorsky helicopters were produced in today's technology by

taking this particular form of the wings of the dragonfly as
model. First the picture of a dragonfly was loaded onto a com-
puter. Considering the dragonfly’s maneuvers in the air, 2,000

special drawings were made. At the end of this study, Sikorsky

came up with its new and very strong model with its advanced
mobility, meant for transporting soldiers and supplies.

Have you ever noticed a dragonfly’s eyes? Dragonflies have

perfect vision. The eyes of the dragonfly are considered
the best insect eyes by scientists. A dragonfly has a pair

of eyes, each one of which contains about 30,000 lenses.
These eyes, which look like two hemispheres and cover

half of the insect's head, provide a broad field of view.
Consequently, even its back is virtually within the dra-

gonfly's range of vision.

These are merely a few of the features of dragonflies,

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