More than one naive romantic has said more than once that love makes the world go round.

After much research and careful observation, I’m almost ready to agree – but with one small caveat. Instead of “round,” I’d say that the world actually rotates – no apostrophe needed. Because I’m not talking about a preposition, but a shape. And the world I’m referring to – well, it’s the realm of the Odonata, the dragonflies and damselflies.

These familiar insects need no introduction—I think we’ve all seen one zooming over a wetland or hovering overhead. (Just a refresher: When at rest, dragons stretch their wings straight out, while damsels fold them over their backs.) They’re also known as mosquito hawks, darning needles, and horse stingers, all names that refer to their elongated bodies and hunting abilities. (And no, they don’t bite humans unless you get too annoyed with them, in which case you kind of deserve to be bitten.)

But before I digress too much, I want to return to today’s topic, which is the amazing acrobatic feats of dragonflies during mating flights. This peculiar pose, also known as a wheel formation, occurs when a male and female unite and prepare to combine their genetic material.

Male dragonflies are equipped with three small structures at the tip of their abdomen: two stiff cerci or “hooks” and a smaller appendage between them called an epiproct. Male damselflies have two cerci and two paraprocts. Whether there are three or four, these tiny parts work together and are colloquially known as claspers.

(If you’ve ever seen anyone play a claw machine — those ubiquitous moneymakers in arcades, bowling alleys, and select restaurants — you may know how effective a jagged body part can be at gripping or holding objects. If you’ve ever seen me play a claw machine, you may also know how ineffective a claw machine player can be, but that’s another story for another time.)

The really cool thing about these terminal abdominal appendages is that they are species-specific. It is literally impossible for a male dragonfly to mate with a female of a different species. His cerci fit snugly into two plates on the thorax of the female of the same species, like a key fits into a lock. Click!

Once this contact is made, the male stands in front of the female. The female responds by rolling her abdomen under her body and stretching it forward until it touches the underside of the male.

The resulting circular configuration, also called a wheel formation, varies in duration depending on the species. In some dragonflies, mating occurs almost instantly. In some demoiselles, the process can take several hours. In other dragonflies and demoiselles, the intervals are somewhere in between. Regardless of the length, this period of whirling is where things really get interesting.

Since dragonflies, and indeed insects in general, do not form pair bonds, multiple matings can occur. The passing on of genetic material is only guaranteed if the males are the last individuals with whom the females have contact before laying their eggs.

For this reason, male dragons and males have developed a number of strategies to remove traces of previous suitors. Males of some species have small structures that act like shovels or brushes; others have “stompers” that push past deposits out of the way. Still others dilute previous sperm, weakening the competition.

The vigilance does not end there. Some males stay with their partner during oviposition or egg laying, although not in wheel formation. Other males prefer to stay close and guard their partner until the eggs are laid.

You might think that once the acrobatics and intrigues are over, the dragonfly’s love story would be over. Well, not quite. They have time on their side – unlike many other insects. Take mayflies, for example. These notoriously short-lived species spend much of their one- to two-year lifespan as nymphs; as adults, they don’t even feed. Their mating activities are therefore one-off affairs.

However, dragonflies and damselflies have enormous feeding needs as adults and experience a long adult phase – by insect standards – of several weeks to several months, with larger species generally surviving longer than smaller ones.

For dragons and fallow deer, this means that they, both male and female, will mate multiple times during their adult lives. For us, this means that we can witness these enchanting rituals again and again from now until the first heavy frost. Because the cycle just keeps going.

I mean… round.

• Pam Otto is an outreach ambassador for the St. Charles Park District. You can reach them at [email protected].