National Geographic: The Body Changers Page #2

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With a secret weapon

locked and loaded,

the dragonfly nymph

waits for an opportunity.

Folded up under the nymph's head

is a hinged lip with a grasping tip.

This tadpole's dreams of frogdom

are dashed.

But in these death throes,

a chemical is released

which fellow tadpoles

take to heart or to tail.

In two weeks, tadpoles in the area

transform remarkably.

Their tails turn a shade of red.

The colored tail may protect tadpoles

from attack

like a neon sign flashing "Don't Eat."

Why this works, no one is sure,

but there's no need to turn tail

with a tail turned red.

The pond is abuzz with

changing bodies.

Not only are tadpoles about to

turn into frogs,

they've already changed colors.

At the age of five weeks, tadpoles,

both red- and clear-tailed,

shed their underwater ways.

Rear legs emerge slowly.

Front legs pop out of gill slits.

The tail is absorbed.

This frog may not have turned into

a prince,

but the tadpole's transformation

is no less astonishing.

An air-breathing, bug-eating,

lily-hopping, sweet-singing adult

has emerged from a silent

scum-sucking swimmer with gills.

Now is the dragonfly nymph's time

to change.

It's been lurking in the shallows

by the shore,

waiting for just the right moment

to abandon the water forever.

Tonight is perfectly calm,

since rain or wind could dislodge

the dragonfly at a vulnerable moment.

The nymph has crawled out of the water

and fastened itself to a stem.

It is now committed to the air.

A brand new creature

emerges from the old.

The husk of the nymph splits open.

In a single magical hour,

an adult struggles out.

At first, its goggle eyes look like

deflated beach balls.

But soon they are pumped up

to full size,

some of the keenest eyes

in the insect realm.

In the remaining hours before dawn,

the dragonfly pumps blood

into its soft, wet wings,

doubling their length.

The dragonfly has changed from

a jet-powered aquatic hunter

armed with a hydraulic spear

to a peerless aerialist

that will stalk on the wing.

About two hours after emerging,

the dragonfly takes flight.

Once master of the pond bottom,

the dragonfly now controls

the air space above.

No other insect devotes as big

a share of its body weight

to flight muscles as the dragonfly.

Scuba certification has been traded

in for a pilot's license.

As larvae,

dragonflies once hunted tadpoles.

Adult frogs sometimes have the chance

to even the score.

A dragonfly is a curve ball

on the wing.

There's nothing wrong with

the occasional whiff

if now and then you connect with

a solid double.

Just as body changes can take place

in individual creatures,

so they can occur across generations.

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