# Weather radar tracks swarm of dragonflies



## Marie5656 (Sep 22, 2019)

An enormous mystery cloud has baffled US meteorologists this week who spotted the shape stretching over parts of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but saw no rainfall.
The National Weather Service spotted the “conundrum”, and suggested it could be a swarm of “bugs”, however the altitude was so high, they were initially sceptical such a massive number of creatures could be flying so high.
NWS Wakefield said on Twitter: “No rain around the region with decent returns on radar. Usually we’d think we’re seeing bugs. Dual polarization radar products argue otherwise and some of these returns are above 10,000ft”.
COMPLETE ARTICLE


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## wvnewbie (Sep 22, 2019)

Yep!  We have seen the swarms of dragonfies here in WV too.  Someone said they were migrating?  Not sure about that?


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## Marie5656 (Sep 22, 2019)

wvnewbie said:


> Yep!  We have seen the swarms of dragonfies here in WV too.  Someone said they were migrating?  Not sure about that?



Could be. I mean, birds migrate, why not bugs too?


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## SeaBreeze (Sep 22, 2019)

Wow!  I've seen numbers of them together around certain lake areas over the years, but never a big swarm.  I always wondered if they sting people, I never had a bad encounter with one.


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## Marie5656 (Sep 22, 2019)

@SeaBreeze I remember seeing them around lakes, too.  When I was young, for some reason we called them "sewing needles". Maybe because of the long skinny body shape.


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## Ken N Tx (Sep 23, 2019)

wvnewbie said:


> Yep!  We have seen the swarms of dragonfies here in WV too.  Someone said they were migrating?  Not sure about that?


_They are fast, agile fliers, sometimes migrating across oceans, and often live near water. They have a uniquely complex mode of reproduction involving indirect insemination, delayed fertilization, and sperm competition. During mating, the male grasps the female at the back of the head, and the female curls her abdomen under her body to pick up sperm from the male's secondary genitalia at the front of his abdomen, forming the "heart" or "wheel" posture._


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## wvnewbie (Sep 25, 2019)

More than I wanted to know...<g>...


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