It's curious how some are happy to simply shoot what they know than know what they shoot. This might work when one has absolute choice and control over a scene of uncluttered beauty. But in tropical forests, there exists an embarassment of subjects, a bewildering diversity of organisms occupying every strata, surface and second of the solar cycle, many of which offer but fleeting glimpses amid a drop of light and heap scorn on both those who claim to find nothing to see and single-minded souls who have eyes only for what little they want.
A quick dip into handy resources, however, is all that's needed to prep the eye for random brushes with what is left of the spirits that haunt local woods. Thus, the forewarning that damp spots on the forest floor are likely to be guarded by metallic blue dragonflies with dark wingtips tempered the surprise of stumbling across two robust libellulids along the waterlogged portion of a popular biking trail. The skimmers still impressed, though, with their bulk that dwarfs the bodies of similarly coloured pondside dashers and a presence that lords over their narrow realm with swift, purposeful flights.
In the dull shade of the trail, the two males were near-invisible, flitting wraiths with no palpable form as they patrolled their shared territory, becoming apparent only just before they silenced their wings to alight on a few favoured perches. The path was ridden with muddy ruts and the skimmers, old hats by their worn, web-ridden veins, maintained half-a-dozen, mostly inaccessible, footholds on overhanging twigs.
Only a couple of branches offered the semblance of a reasonable height and room for manœuvre, and the dim understorey offered what many would regard as ill-befitting backgrounds for portraits of note. But unambitious fowl are content to savour the insects' bold blend of blue and gold and ponder the origins of a bright red mite on the thorax of one of the males. Be it phoretic freeloader or lymph-sucking parasite, the acarine probably acquired its shot ride on a fast machine by frequenting the tips of promising stems. Creatures of habit and dwindling habitats, the skimmers reward both hitchhiker and human by their loyalty to humid airspaces where they await the chance to couple and commandeer shallow pools or tree holes and nurse nymphs of bold rapacity.
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