Dragon Flies of the Nebraska Sandhills

I was out in western Nebraska today in the area known as the Sandhills.

I was thrilled to capture some good photos of dragonflies.

I will save the wildflowers for another post  :  )

Below is some information I copied here from Wikipedia on dragon flies.
I was originally searching for how this insect got it's name.

In Europe, dragonflies have often been seen as sinister. Some English vernacular names, such as "devil's darning needle" and "ear cutter", link them with evil or injury.
A Romanian folk tale says that the dragonfly was once a horse possessed by the devil. Swedish folklore holds that the devil uses dragonflies to weigh people's souls. 
The Norwegian name for dragonflies is "Øyenstikker", which literally means Eye Poker and in Portugal they are sometimes called "Tira-olhos" (Eye snatcher).
They are often associated with snakes, as in the Welsh name gwas-y-neidr, "adder's servant".
The Southern United States term "snake doctor" refers to a folk belief that dragonflies follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured.

For some Native American tribes they represent swiftness and activity,
and for the Navajo they symbolize pure water.
They also have traditional uses as medicine in Japan and China.
In some parts of the world they are a food source, eaten either as adults or larvae;
in Indonesia, for example, they are caught on poles made sticky with birdlime, then fried in oil as a delicacy.
In the United States dragonflies and damselflies are sought out as a hobby similar to birding and butterflying, known as oding, from the dragonfly's Latin species name, odonata. Oding is especially popular in Texas, where 225 different species of odonates have been observed. With care, and with dry fingers, dragonflies can be handled and released by oders, as can be done with butterflies, though it is not encouraged.


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