Beat the heat technique
Obelisking Blue Dasher
The heat wave continues, and it's beginning to be clear that at least some of the local insects are having to adopt a kind of Plan B to cope with temperatures and humidity levels that have remained in the mid-to-upper 90s. This Blue Dasher dragonfly is deploying a strategy that odonatologists call obelisking, in honor of the fact that the critters stick their abdomens straight up in the air. In this position they resemble those stone monuments known as obelisks, and the point of the maneuver is to minimize the amount of surface area exposed to the sun. The dragonflies are already hot enough in the torrid air and are barely able to dump all that excess heat out their abdomens. Better to avoid absorbing any more solar energy—obelisking to the rescue.