William. Autumn is dragonfly (蜻蛉, トンボ, tonbo) season. Kumamoto’s abundant water ensures a plethora. Most of a dragonfly’s life is spent as a nymph. The nymph extends its hinged labium (a toothed mouthpart similar to a lower mandible, normally folded and held before the face) that can extend forward and retract rapidly to capture prey such as mosquito larvae, tadpoles, and small fish - kinda like Alien; this trait extends to its adult phase, useful when you’re chasing mosquitos. Must be terrifying for other insects; the dragonfly then perches on some high point and consumes its prey headfirst. The nymph stage lasts between a few months to as long as five years, depending on the species. The nymphs are voracious predators, eating most living things that are smaller than they are. Once out of water, they only have six to ten months to live, depending on the species, so they’ve gotta focus on that mating/reproduction stuff. You’ll often see two dragonfly connected, chilling on a leaf: the male is delivering sperm to the female, who will decide what to do with it later (females may mate multiple times). Of interest is the dragonfly eye. Each eye is composed of over 16,000 cells, giving it a 360° view, and its vision “refresh rate” is about 200 frames per second, compared with 45 for humans. Their agility and ferociousness inspired samurai, who on occasion modeled their helmets on the beast, as shown below. I hope this has given you a better appreciation of dragonflies. Please see the links below from which I have sourced this information. As a special note for Kumamoto: the smallest dragonfly in Japan lives here, called the ハッチュウトンボ、, which is about the size of a one-yen coin (click on the photo for a comparison). https://discover.silversea.com/destinations/asia/dragonflies-in-japan/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganisoptera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ommatidium https://discover.silversea.com/destinations/asia/dragonflies-in-japan/