Heya. Seems like so long from last week, right?… No? Dang; I must be doing too much.
You might’ve noticed the lack of the banner; I’m still working on a new version, and haven’t had time to get it up. But when I have everything decided, it should look great.
This week I decided to do a Pokémon line that spans two generations, since I’m done with the generation-countdown articles.
Great time to find dragonflies this month, and here’s one any bug enthusiast would love to see. Yanma, and its bigger, badder evolution, Yanmega.
So click on through!
Basis
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So this sure looks obvious. Some other place might tell you it’s a different species of dragonfly, but I don’t agree with them. This is pretty obviously Yanma. See the red bands? The forked tail?
This is the Banded Darter, if you want to know the specific species, Sympetrum pedemontanum. It’s a red dragonfly, known for its bright red bands on the wings. Mainly European, it’s a well known dragonfly across the world. Pretty cool.
There’s only one problem with the Pokémon design; its green eyes, the banded dragonfly has red eyes. The designers probably figured a Pokémon with a red body didn’t need red eyes; they had to make them stand out more and give more character to it with complimentary green eyes.
So this is a fossil clearly. Meganisoptera; an order of dragonflies that contained the largest dragonflies that ever lived.
They lived 300 million years ago, and had wingspans of at least 30 inches. That’s well over two feet, and it’s pretty wild. Actually, if you want to know how big it is..
That’s a full scale model of it, and that’s a full sized log. Yup, these fellas were way too big for their own good. This is thought to be due to high air content; but it’s really debated why this was.
Yanmega is clearly based on it; it has a hefty size, most likely much larger than even the largest of the Meganisoptera order. Although Yanmega is mainly based on creativity, its basis is clearly based in Meganisoptera. The spikes, tough looks, coloration, and all of that are clearly creative work.
To sum up, Yanma’s a dragonfly, and Yanmega is even bigger.
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Biology
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Here ya go, this is Yanma. Lovely looking fella; the colours work so well.
Yanma is clearly adapted to high speeds; everything on its body is streamlined and angled back. Yanma is known for producing sonic booms, and to get to that speed you’d need to be aerodynamic and powerful.
It sure looks aerodynamic, but how about power? At the end of the tail we can see it has two fins; this would most likely keep it stable in flight, and gives it more surface area to hover with less effort. This way the wings can be focused on speed, working one pair after another, even higher power without effort.
Personally, I think it looks to be more about effortlessness than overpowering itself.
It has some nice chompers, but I doubt Yanma hunts more than some small insects; maybe plants.
The patterns and colors are likely to show off to other Yanma, as the speed makes them not need to deal with many predators. On top of that, the spikes on the end of the tail would probably scare most predators away though.
This is a mean looking fellow. It now has a body covered in spikes, feet with claws, fangs, a spiny tail..
The colors have changed to be an ambush predator; evidently they can now hide in trees and watch for larger prey items, rather than Yanma’s small insects.
On top of this, Yanmega has some crazy weaponry on its body; it can now take down a large prey item, probably even a Stantler at that size. The feet seem prepared to pick up anything it wants, and judging by the fangs it has, it can devour anything it can grab. Pretty impressive for a bug, don’t you think?
Clearly it has stopped caring as much about being effortless, and has a lot of non-streamlined body parts. The body is large, suggesting large muscles to aid the wings. This would mean it could beat the speed of Yanma, while still being decked out with some heavy weapons.
The red orbs seem to be easier for other Yanmega to see, this would mean that although they can still camouflage, they can also show off to other Yanmega with their pattern. One could assume their eyes are adapted to infrared, judging by the colouration, and this would help see the spots.
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So there’s this weeks article. Fun times; Yanma is one of my favorite Pokémon ever, and you can see why! Simple, but beautiful. I love me some Odonata though; one of my favorite insects. Damselflies especially.
Any comments? Suggestions to the next article? Any ideas for a series of articles? Love talking to you guys.
-Mechanos