Female Dragonflies Play Dead to Avoid Males

Zigz and I discussed this on-air last Friday…

We all know of stories of creepy dudes approaching girls at bars, catcalling, etc. Not to be biased! Girls can be just as creepy towards dudes too sometimes! But no matter your grand master plan of avoiding the opposite sex is, I think dragonflies have the most savvy plan of all -faking death.

According to Huffington Post, a researcher that has studied dragonflies for the past decade, told New Scientist that he was collecting moorland hawker dragonfly larva in the Swiss Alps when he first saw the phenomenon. A male was pursuing a female, at which point she dove to the ground and lay motionless on her back until the male left.

Huffington Post has more of the story here. Does this strategy also work for human interaction? I’m asking for a friend…