Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times reporters

As humans reshape environments, we drive away many creatures. A select few species stick around or even come to join us: the rats who relish our trash, the pigeons who make cliffs of our skyscrapers, the coyotes as at home in our cul-de-sacs and city parks as they are in deserts

.Add to that list the blue dasher dragonfly, an azure-tailed aeronaut with a canted, ready-for-takeoff stance. In a paper published last month in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution, researchers detailed the survival strategies of these insects, who happily make their homes in the scuzzier corners of our built environment.

Read more Meet the Beautiful Dragonfly That Thrives in Your Pollution