Megapixels: A Dew-Covered Damselfly

In the cool of the early morning, insects like this dew-covered blue damselfly move slowly, making it the perfect time to capture them on film. Ondrej Pakan, a photographer fascinated by insects--he describes them as inhabitants of “a world of small monsters”--snapped this shot at Lake Dubnik in Slovakia. Damselflies, often mistaken for dragonflies, spend most of their lives underwater. They live anywhere from a few weeks up to a year as gilled larvae. Even after transforming into air-breathing, winged adults, several species of female damselflies return to the water to lay eggs. While they descend, their hairs trap oxygen bubbles that serve as miniature air tanks; their mates wait at the surface to pull them out when they reemerge.