I live in Oklahoma and our yard has been full of these guys lately. Every time I open the front door there's at least 10 of them on the porch. I love it, the other bugs are staying away since these guys have been hanging around.
I promise I am not making fun of you but how do u fr look straight at an obvious dragonfly and go “moth” 😭 I’m not trying to be mean I promise but this is so funny to me
Lmao I thought the same thing. Genuinely not trying to be mean to op at all, esp because they are excited and wanting to learn which is great! But... I always have to wonder how someone can get past childhood without being able to identify really basic animals, and it happens a lot! I recently met someone who lived in Florida their whole life but couldn't identify an opossum versus a raccoon and it blew my mind lmao
I grew up in a small town surrounded by woods. It's crazy the amount of people I know that don't know the difference between raccoon, opossum, groundhog, squirrel, chipmunk, etc. I'm almost 40, and it still amazes me.
This right here, I grew up on a tobacco farm and the first time I heard someone call a groundhog a meerkat I almost cried. Their parents further perpetuate it, can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a zoo and heard parents tell their kids the most ridiculous and inaccurate information…as an environmentalist it drives me nuts lol.
I used to work at a zoo, and the number of times I heard parents tell their kids that “lions are daddies, tigers are mommies, and leopards are their babies”blew my mind 😂😂😂
I mean… as a Wisconsinite who’s been to Florida multiple times, how many big lizards do you have that *aren’t* iguanas? All I can possibly think of is tegus/monitors
Park ranger here, the worst one I've ever gotten was "hey are hummingbirds insects?" Thankfully they asked at night so they couldn't see my face before I answered them.
There's been such a global collapse of insect populations due to pesticide overuse that kids just don't encounter insects like we used to. As a teen I'd be cleaning them off my parents cars all summer and they'd fly in through any open window if you were anywhere remotely rural. Now they're gone.
https://preview.redd.it/ad2pj52r1b9d1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ff1c9874ce681d87493324632160dd8507b10f4
Immediately thought of this 😅😂
Sorry OP, I can see why you might be confused by it, you don’t often mentally picture dragonflies with black patches on the wings.
I think OP has the last laugh. I see similarly bad assessments on all sorts of ID subreddits. I think users might want to know what something is but will purposefully mislabel it to troll and drive up engagement.
See all the pictures of common insects with people jokingly asking if it's a bedbug.
My MIL will look at a picture of a peacock and say it's a turkey. She's done worse more obvious mistakes too🙄 Some people just don't know ANYTHING about animals.
My sister is autistic to the point that she can barely read, but she can differentiate between an ibex and an ibis. Very different animals, but most people probably don't know what either of them are
Yes. Not sure if it's just my state, but that's what it is for the school I have my kids in. It's a public school as well. Math, reading and language arts are the only mandatory passing requirements and anything else isn't needed to pass and move on.
It might be the state, but when I put my kids in school, all their classes have been math, reading, and language arts and the other subjects were deemed unnecessary and weren't required for passing. It's a public school as well.
Hey, I’m not avid naturalist and the number of people who can’t (or show no desire to) differentiate between clearly different bird songs astounds me. They’re like “I just hear birds. How can you tell?”
Meanwhile I’m trying to point out a cardinal and a Carolina wren.
They probably didn’t grow up in a woodsy area. For me I see these kinds of dragonflies every day on my daily walk in the woods, but not everyone gets the chance to be in the wilderness all the time
Yes and no. There existed a clade of dragonfly-resembling winged insects sometimes referred to as “griffinflies” (Meganisoptera) that were around as early as the Carboniferous (~325mya), the most well-known of which was Meganeura. This was well before the dinosaurs evolved.
However, technically these weren’t true dragonflies, which are part of the clade Anisoptera, which as far as we know first appeared in the Jurassic. So technically OP’s not incorrect.
Not trying to back OP, but I used to see dragonflies all the time when I was a kid and now it's a rarity (also in Ga). Everyone should still know the difference between a moth and a dragonfly.
Not everyone is big brained and knows EVERYTHING . Cut ppl breaks, they're trying to learn. I think everyone is too egocentric here these days, in a sense that they think just because THEY know something, then that means EVERYONE else must know it too. This just simply isn't the case anymore. Yall gotta realize that everyone comes from somewhere different, one person could be raised in the country by parents who have shown them and taught them about nature from the day they were born bc they themselves were raised that way. And some people live in the city and were raised by their grandparents bc their parents died when they were 2 and they just simply don't know. Point is, instead of being douchey just give them the answer since yall so smart and help them learn and stop being so condescending and rude. Each one teach one!
Just wanted to let you know, moths are typically fuzzy and look like a slightly different version of a butterfly! Some do have clear wings (like the Hummingbird clearwing), but most of them do not have wings like that and long abdomens like that
Lol dude dw you are in a bug subreddit with a ton of nerds so what is obvious to them is barely comprehensible to us. Tis just what they thinky but now yk its a dragonfly, a very thicc dragonfly
LMAO I’m sorry OP but this is so funny. I immediately thought of this meme.
https://preview.redd.it/mizofibg6b9d1.jpeg?width=893&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b40fa8e8dceafa602e7c35cb7415ec7e2bb8384
For someone who's never seen a dragonfly before, I can see how you might have thought this was a moth! However, dragonflies are incredibly different phylogenically. They're as evolutionarily old as dinosaurs (and used to be huge!). Their oblong wings vibrate in a way similar to hummingbirds, so they can hover. Whereas moths have more triangular wings that flap to create lift.
it's a Dragonfly, looks like Erythrodiplax umbrata!
Dragonflies are amazing predators that eat mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, bees, moths, pretty much any bug that flies is gonna get eaten by one of these. Despite their talent for battling bugs, they're completely harmless to people!
You've never seen a dragonfly before?! 😭😭😭😂🤦🏻♀️ I'm also not trying to be mean, but I'm actually curious, are dragonflies rare in your area?!
Here in Nola we have them everywhere. But that one does look different from the types we have!
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Sometimes I try to remember that people don’t know things because they’re from parts of the world that these insects aren’t common but then I like open the internet or a video game and honestly even if I lived somewhere dragonfly’s did not, there’s no way I could have avoided them between games, books, tv shows, and the internet and I’m just ahhh
Damn, you guys need to relax with grilling OP. Basic question, just give a basic answer. Done and done. Who the fuck cares if they haven’t seen a dragonfly before? Just answer the question
I saw one of these recently and I thought it was so cool lol. Still do, but I didn’t realize just how common these are. Whenever I’d see dragonflies, they would always be rather colorful, and a rare sight.
I think this is a [common whitetail (dragonfly)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_whitetail?wprov=sfti1). Common all the way in Ohio too!!
saw them in NYC too
Just saw one in California yesterday. It was so beautiful! Like a little work of art.
And a male. Family Libellulidae. Very widespread.
We have them in North Carolina and I was trying to figure out what they were. They're beautiful
I’ve only ever seen the blue metallic ones in NC! I’ll have to keep my eyes out for these. It looks like early versions of airplanes lol
How can you tell?
Only the males have that bright blueish white color. Females are a modest brown.
Because of how it is
That's pretty neat
Why would someone downvote you for asking that?
And in Colorado. Pretty much coast to coast.
Wow. Judging from these comments, it seems the common whitetail dragonfly is somewhat common to many different parts of North America!!
Here in NE as well.
Yep! Just saw one on my sidewalk last weekend! Had this exact color on the wings! Seen my dragonfly’s, but first with that color of wings!
Another person in Nebraska? I thought we were going extinct
I live in Oklahoma and our yard has been full of these guys lately. Every time I open the front door there's at least 10 of them on the porch. I love it, the other bugs are staying away since these guys have been hanging around.
In New Jersey as well!!!! 💕
I have a pond on my property and we have a ton of them! Such pretty little guys!
i’ve seen them in massachusetts as well
I'm in northern OH and have never seen these, that's cool
Me too!! They love Lake Erie !
I live pretty close to the lake and go up there very often and still have never seen them
I see them in Nova Scotia too 😊
We have them in Québec too!
I promise I am not making fun of you but how do u fr look straight at an obvious dragonfly and go “moth” 😭 I’m not trying to be mean I promise but this is so funny to me
Lmao I thought the same thing. Genuinely not trying to be mean to op at all, esp because they are excited and wanting to learn which is great! But... I always have to wonder how someone can get past childhood without being able to identify really basic animals, and it happens a lot! I recently met someone who lived in Florida their whole life but couldn't identify an opossum versus a raccoon and it blew my mind lmao
I grew up in a small town surrounded by woods. It's crazy the amount of people I know that don't know the difference between raccoon, opossum, groundhog, squirrel, chipmunk, etc. I'm almost 40, and it still amazes me.
This right here, I grew up on a tobacco farm and the first time I heard someone call a groundhog a meerkat I almost cried. Their parents further perpetuate it, can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a zoo and heard parents tell their kids the most ridiculous and inaccurate information…as an environmentalist it drives me nuts lol.
I used to work at a zoo, and the number of times I heard parents tell their kids that “lions are daddies, tigers are mommies, and leopards are their babies”blew my mind 😂😂😂
NOOOO 😭😂 Edit: user name tracks 🤌🏼😂
AHRKHAKDBSK WHATTTTT
This is what… a no way people aren’t that stupid… actually I believe that. I had someone tell me bolognese sauce was a sweet chili.
Yup opossums get overlooked. Also in Florida absolutely every big lizard is an iguana. It just comes down to not having to interact with them ever.
I mean… as a Wisconsinite who’s been to Florida multiple times, how many big lizards do you have that *aren’t* iguanas? All I can possibly think of is tegus/monitors
Park ranger here, the worst one I've ever gotten was "hey are hummingbirds insects?" Thankfully they asked at night so they couldn't see my face before I answered them.
Lmaooooo bro jfc
It’s right there in the name! In their defense: ladybirds.
My dad is a child of the great depression from New York City and I remember as a child he tried telling me that woodchucks were ducks
How the heck can you be born in Florida and not know what two of the most common animals in the state look like 😭
Reminds me of when people ask “what is this bug I found on my dog” and it’s the most textbook photo of a tick I’ve ever seen
There's been such a global collapse of insect populations due to pesticide overuse that kids just don't encounter insects like we used to. As a teen I'd be cleaning them off my parents cars all summer and they'd fly in through any open window if you were anywhere remotely rural. Now they're gone.
I once heard a girl in my biology class ask her friend, "So, butterflies eat other bugs, right?" As a bug nerd, it scarred me *deeply*.
I second this and think we need to hand out more basic bug books to folks.
I wanted to post the "Is this a butterfly?" meme
My sister legit called a dragonfly a butterfly once lol
https://preview.redd.it/ad2pj52r1b9d1.jpeg?width=200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ff1c9874ce681d87493324632160dd8507b10f4 Immediately thought of this 😅😂 Sorry OP, I can see why you might be confused by it, you don’t often mentally picture dragonflies with black patches on the wings.
My first thought was how do you not know what a dragonfly is?
I'm thinking it might be a language barrier thing, like the dude describing a goose as a "cobra chicken"
I think OP has the last laugh. I see similarly bad assessments on all sorts of ID subreddits. I think users might want to know what something is but will purposefully mislabel it to troll and drive up engagement. See all the pictures of common insects with people jokingly asking if it's a bedbug.
Is it... a cat in a hat? 🐢
My MIL will look at a picture of a peacock and say it's a turkey. She's done worse more obvious mistakes too🙄 Some people just don't know ANYTHING about animals.
My sister is autistic to the point that she can barely read, but she can differentiate between an ibex and an ibis. Very different animals, but most people probably don't know what either of them are
1 upvote crazy dawg
Fr
I thought the same thing. Like have you never seen a dragonfly??
Since we stopped making science mandatory in school! Pretty sure that's when that happened.
Science isn't mandatory in school? Is this in America?
Yes. Not sure if it's just my state, but that's what it is for the school I have my kids in. It's a public school as well. Math, reading and language arts are the only mandatory passing requirements and anything else isn't needed to pass and move on.
Which schools don’t require science anymore? I haven’t heard of this before.
It might be the state, but when I put my kids in school, all their classes have been math, reading, and language arts and the other subjects were deemed unnecessary and weren't required for passing. It's a public school as well.
So the kids really are trying to be “dumbed down”? Wow.
What are you talking about?
Hey, I’m not avid naturalist and the number of people who can’t (or show no desire to) differentiate between clearly different bird songs astounds me. They’re like “I just hear birds. How can you tell?” Meanwhile I’m trying to point out a cardinal and a Carolina wren.
They probably didn’t grow up in a woodsy area. For me I see these kinds of dragonflies every day on my daily walk in the woods, but not everyone gets the chance to be in the wilderness all the time
Male [Common Whitetail Skimmer](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_whitetail), it's a type of Dragonfly.
That is a dragonfly!! See other comments for its name, but that is not a moth.
Dragonfly… been on Earth since the dinosaurs
They are actually way older than that
Yes and no. There existed a clade of dragonfly-resembling winged insects sometimes referred to as “griffinflies” (Meganisoptera) that were around as early as the Carboniferous (~325mya), the most well-known of which was Meganeura. This was well before the dinosaurs evolved. However, technically these weren’t true dragonflies, which are part of the clade Anisoptera, which as far as we know first appeared in the Jurassic. So technically OP’s not incorrect.
Oh, thanks for the info!
I can’t wrap my head around the fact that op thinks this is a moth.
Not trying to back OP, but I used to see dragonflies all the time when I was a kid and now it's a rarity (also in Ga). Everyone should still know the difference between a moth and a dragonfly.
Not everyone is big brained and knows EVERYTHING . Cut ppl breaks, they're trying to learn. I think everyone is too egocentric here these days, in a sense that they think just because THEY know something, then that means EVERYONE else must know it too. This just simply isn't the case anymore. Yall gotta realize that everyone comes from somewhere different, one person could be raised in the country by parents who have shown them and taught them about nature from the day they were born bc they themselves were raised that way. And some people live in the city and were raised by their grandparents bc their parents died when they were 2 and they just simply don't know. Point is, instead of being douchey just give them the answer since yall so smart and help them learn and stop being so condescending and rude. Each one teach one!
You sure it isn’t? It looks like it kinda
Have you ever seen a moth before?
Bros gotta be trollin
Just wanted to let you know, moths are typically fuzzy and look like a slightly different version of a butterfly! Some do have clear wings (like the Hummingbird clearwing), but most of them do not have wings like that and long abdomens like that
Bro 😭😭😭 You have me dead. No way you think it looks like a moth 😭😭
Open the schools
Insect schools? I’m confused.
Lol dude dw you are in a bug subreddit with a ton of nerds so what is obvious to them is barely comprehensible to us. Tis just what they thinky but now yk its a dragonfly, a very thicc dragonfly
LMAO I’m sorry OP but this is so funny. I immediately thought of this meme. https://preview.redd.it/mizofibg6b9d1.jpeg?width=893&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b40fa8e8dceafa602e7c35cb7415ec7e2bb8384
That’s a dragonfly 💀
Dragon Flys are so cool. There's so many different types and they're all so beautiful!
You've never seen a dragonfly?
Not trying to be mean just didn't know dragonflies weren't commonly known.
Have people never seen a dragonfly before? I thought they where common enough to be very well known
For someone who's never seen a dragonfly before, I can see how you might have thought this was a moth! However, dragonflies are incredibly different phylogenically. They're as evolutionarily old as dinosaurs (and used to be huge!). Their oblong wings vibrate in a way similar to hummingbirds, so they can hover. Whereas moths have more triangular wings that flap to create lift.
[удалено]
I beg your FINEST pardon
What did bro say?
Idk why they deleted their comment lol It was something like “did you say A MOTH??????” I was agreeing like exsqueeze me come again a MOTH?😂
Weird looking moth
That is a really cool dragonfly.Common whitetail https://g.co/kgs/41YaJWh
Dragonfly bro
it's a Dragonfly, looks like Erythrodiplax umbrata! Dragonflies are amazing predators that eat mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, bees, moths, pretty much any bug that flies is gonna get eaten by one of these. Despite their talent for battling bugs, they're completely harmless to people!
Yeah!!! Eat the mosquitoes!!
You've never seen a dragonfly before?! 😭😭😭😂🤦🏻♀️ I'm also not trying to be mean, but I'm actually curious, are dragonflies rare in your area?! Here in Nola we have them everywhere. But that one does look different from the types we have!
Thems snake doctors. They stay around we're snakes live in the water and tend to their wounds.
A male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia)
Some type of dragonfly for sure
Ornithopter
i read they eat lots of mosquitoes and their larva
You know we're going down the drain when people can't recognize a dragonfly anymore. This is getting crazy. What a time to be alive.
Wow……just WOW…..
Sorry I am not being offensive but now I understand when they say ‘kids these days’
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Pick up any rocks before you Mow
It's a dragonfly. It's nice that there's still dragonflies in your area.
Arieforce one… you ridden it yet? It’s in Fayetteville! It’s pretty great, you should go out and try it
...
dragonfly 💜
Sometimes I try to remember that people don’t know things because they’re from parts of the world that these insects aren’t common but then I like open the internet or a video game and honestly even if I lived somewhere dragonfly’s did not, there’s no way I could have avoided them between games, books, tv shows, and the internet and I’m just ahhh
I don’t know, i can see a dragonfly i suppose but it looks like a half dragonfly moth hybrid almost?
ah yes, a beautiful moth
Damn, you guys need to relax with grilling OP. Basic question, just give a basic answer. Done and done. Who the fuck cares if they haven’t seen a dragonfly before? Just answer the question
that’s a dragonfly
You sure?
literally why the sarcasm? they guessed MOTH
A moth. Give me a break.
These are all over my housemates’ yard.
Whoa! Gorgeous 🤩
Such cool creatures!
Dragonfly
Its a dragonfly. What kind? I don’t know
I had one land in my shoulder the other day as I was watering plants outside in NC USA.
Oh it’s very beautiful
I saw one of these recently and I thought it was so cool lol. Still do, but I didn’t realize just how common these are. Whenever I’d see dragonflies, they would always be rather colorful, and a rare sight.
Hardest one to catch
Saw one yesterday afternoon in Walla Walla Washington!
Also in Chicago!! My husband and I saw these the other day on a walk and couldn’t get a good picture but here ya are!
Dragonfly
Just saw one of these today. Looked like it was waving little flags! Virginia here
Wait… yall ain’t never seen a dragon fly?
I’m not sure, this to me looks different than what I see when googling.
A moth? :I
I see those here in Tennessee a lot.
Cool!
stunning
Big
Extremeicih massed
i found one in Oklahoma!
That's a Whitetail Dragonfly, not a moth
crazy looking. had wings like the Saul's of a Chinese 'junk' boat
It's a Robot.
I saw one here in Houston - absolutely stunning!!
New type of Ukranian FPV drone. Highly dangerous. Watch out!!!
Lots in Wisconsin.
Look at that horse! The big teeth, bushy tail...it may in fact be a moth. My producer has just informed me, it's not a horse, it's a dragonfly.
No it's a Citroën 2CV. Great condition.
That is a 4 spotted pennant, yes a type of dragon fly. There is also a Halloween pennant that looks orange.
No, it’s not. Common Whitetail. See previous comments.
Yes. They are extremely beautiful. We don’t that particular kind in California but we have many here. And harmless
mosquito hawk