The Death of Dragonflies

"I get to run around with a bug net this summer."

I'm researching dragonfly ecology at the University of California, Berkeley. Yes, it's fun, but there's a danger.

We have to preserve some of the dragonflies we catch as specimens, which is a useful skill to have. Here's how the process goes.

First, in the field, we put the dragonflies in little waxed stamp-collecting envelopes and label the envelopes with the place and date, and maybe the scientific name if we can identify them in the field. They're still alive, because they are preserved better if they defecate in the envelopes first. These envelopes are put in a tupperware box next to an ice pack until the next day. The cold makes the dragonflies weak, but keeps them alive.

The next day, we take the dragonflies and put them in acetone to kill them. The acetone both poisons and preserves the color of the dragonflies, so that they can be re-identified far in the future. The dragonflies flail in the acetone for maybe a few minutes at most, and then they're dead. This is the danger.

It's hard to watch this process, because even though dragonflies are so different from us, death is something we have in common. It's not easy to watch something struggle and die, and the danger is becoming immune to death. We can tell ourselves that dragonflies don't live that long (maybe three weeks as an adult) and that females lay 1000 eggs at a time or more, or that this is necessary for future scientific research, but it doesn't matter. Each life is precious, and it's right to feel uncomfortable.

When a dragonfly dies, the color fades from its eyes. I don't know why this happens, but when a dragonfly with blue eyes dies, its eyes turn brown. Under each huge compound eye is a tiny black dot - the pupil. When the color fades, the eyes sometimes become clear, and you can see the pupil, and suddenly, the dragonfly doesn't seem so alien. It's easy to imagine a dead look on each dragonfly's face as we fold its wings and slip them back into their envelopes to soak in the acetone.  Burial rites, if you like. We're mummifying them, and each is given the greatest care.

After a night in the acetone jars, each dragonfly is laid out to dry, and then slipped into clear envelopes with their labels. They're ready for storage in a museum collection or to be analyzed for a research project.

Dragonflies, rest in peace.