A Line Crossed

Well, I went and did it. I collected a damselfly. I hadn't set out to. It just happened. I was walking to my car and alongside the road were several small dark-winged damsels flitting about. Naked-eye damsel ID in the field with no references isn't something I'm real good at yet.

I finally took my hat and captured one. I injured one of its wings in the process. I brought it home, shot a whole bunch of pictures of it. Then I euthanized it in my freezer.





After being a birder for almost 15 years it still seems really wierd to me to catch a damsel in order to identify it. And yet, on the other hand, I kill other bugs all the time. I'm not sure what the moral delima is for me. Have I somehow elevated odes above other insects? If so, why? Granted, odes don't bite me or try to eat my food. They stay out of my house and don't eat my property.

I've crossed a line somewhere by capturing and killing this damselfly. I'm not entirely sure I'm comfortable with having crossed it. I understand that there are some species I am very unlikely to ever be able to identify or photograph without collecting a specimen. There are some birds I suppose I could say that about as well, but I obviously can't do that.

It's not that I think the act of killing is inherently bad. I eat meat. No problem. This ethical quandry intrigues me more because of the puzzle of trying to decipher my own motivations that cause it rather than the issue of one dead insect. Heady stuff to ponder as I sit at my computer drinking coffee looking out the window at the rain...