A Trip to the Library

for three big books.

Winking wings, shiny like opalescent mica, signal recent emergence from the larval state, says Giff Beaton, author of Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast: "The adult at this point is called a teneral, or very new adult, and can be identified as such by its shiny wings and lack of coloration."Everywhere -- on leaf, grass blade, twig -- tenerals lie in the sun or shade, then lift and flutter like pearls unstrung through uncertain air.