On a sunny summer Saturday, sunbathers were soaking up the adrenaline-pumping rays at Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, Rhode Island, when a swarm of dragonflies surprised everyone and caused Many people fled in search of shelter.
“I've never seen anything like this in my life,” one woman filming the wild scene said from behind the camera.
Dragonflies swoop down and snake through the air like small fighter jets. Some sunbathers ducked while others waved their arms wildly, trying to fight off the winged intruders.
“A dragonfly swarm is a large group of dragonflies that typically feed on small prey insects,” Christine Goforth, director of citizen science at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, told WBUR. “So you can see dozens, millions or even billions of dragonflies flying together in these large swarms.”
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Goforth studied large swarms of dragonflies that form when large swarms of colorful aerial insects pause their migrations to feed, which is when migratory species head south. Swarms can be so large that they show up on weather radar, Goforth said.
“It appears from the radar data that the dragonflies were caught in a 'sea breeze front' that formed near the coast and moved northwest,” AccuWeather meteorologist and digital producer Jesse Ferrell explained.
“Sea breeze fronts carry anything in the air, including insects, ocean waves or pollen. Larger bugs often show up as faint echoes on radar because they are close to the size of raindrops,” Ferrer added.
So next time you go to the beach, keep an eye on the sky. You never know when Dragonfly Squadron will pay a surprise visit!
