And this is called the Globe Skimmer, or Wandering Glider.

So, why is it that every year millions of dragonflies, millions, millions of dragonflies turn up?

But dragonflies a bit tricky.

Same height as the dragonflies go.

There is a dragonfly on the ceiling.

Because dragonflies need fresh water to breed.

The dragonflies are here now. They're breeding there.

When do you see the dragonflies appear?

So I brought back the rabbit, the dragonfly, to stay in that street.

Those of you who grew up in India, do you remember in your childhood, dragonflies, swarms of dragonflies? Maybe at school, maybe tying little bits of string onto them?

I'm interested in all sorts of things, almost everything that moves, including dragonflies. And I'm actually going to talk, this afternoon, about dragonflies.

But after some time, after some months, one day as I was going out and about, suddenly I noticed hundreds of dragonflies, hundreds of dragonflies.

Because this dragonfly has a rather amazing story to tell.

Nothing for these dragonflies. There is no more seasonal rain.

Charles Anderson discovers dragonflies that cross oceans

Didn't notice any dragonflies maybe they were there, maybe they weren't.

Something like this, these are all this species Globe Skimmer.

The next thing I did was I started counting dragonflies.

But dragonflies are not the only creatures that make the crossing.

You've only got to say, do you remember seeing lots of dragonflies.

This is a very beautiful species, it's called the Oriental Scarlet.

And the dragonflies are there. I have reports from my various contacts.

Who cares? Who cares? Fantomas took off in a rocket.

Now, the particular species of dragonfly I want to talk about is this one, because most dragonflies, like the one we've just seen, when the adult is there for its brief one or two months of life, it doesn't go very far. It can't travel very far.

While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the globe skimmer, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world.

In the Maldives now, in India there is plenty of water, so, dragonflies, yeah, of course. Why not?

And the dragonflies you can see today outside here, on the campus, are the young of this generation.

I didn't know at the time, but I know now, they're Globe Skimmers, hundreds of them.

If St. George had killed a dragonfly instead of a dragon, who would remember him?

And one thing you need to know about dragonflies, one important thing, is that they lay their eggs in fresh water.

What are millions of dragonflies doing, flying out over the ocean every year to their apparent doom?

It's about five kilometers around, counting the dragonflies as I go, trying not to bump into people as I'm looking in the trees.

However, no matter whether they are retired or active athletes, they need to provide outstanding performance to win in the entertainment circle.

So, the dragonflies are actually coming from India on the northeast monsoon, but at an altitude at 1,000 to 2,000 meters up in the air. Incredible.

And every one of these birds that makes the crossing from India to East Africa eats insects, large insects, the size of dragonflies. Thank you very much.

And I know because when you look at the rainfall, these particular insects, these Globe Skimmers breed in temporary rain water pools.

If you're going to study dragonflies, you want to study those really bright beautiful ones, like that red one. Or the really rare ones, the endemic endangered ones.

And typically, there is a lot of variation, but if you have a dragonfly with, say, a one year life cycle, which is quite typical, the larva, living in the fresh water, lives for 10 or 11 months.

And these birds, what I've done is I've complied all the records, all the available records of these birds, put them together, and found out they migrate at exactly the same time as the dragonflies.

the gecko, and the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink, and the chameleon.

the gecko, and the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink, and the chameleon.

And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

The real problem is that the expectations concerning meaningful action on climate change, as opposed to gimmicks such as US President Barack Obama s last minute arrival and minuscule gestures in Copenhagen, are now lower than ever. There are two problems that cannot be wished away.

It also has a negative impact on dedicated staff members who, in a genuine effort to fulfil all mandates, have to spread themselves too thinly, are unable to stay in touch with their fields of expertise and find themselves in a spiral of constant deadlines and diminishing results.