Dragonflies are predators, both in their aquatic larval stage and as adults. Several years of their lives are spent as nymphs living in fresh water. As adults they may be on the wing for just a few days or weeks.
Blue Dasher (female) by
Paul Sager, on Flickr
The Forest Preserves of Cook County, with nearly 70,000 acres, is the oldest and largest forest preserve district in the United States. Led by the same ideals that were launching the National Park System around the same time, Chicago's community leaders came together to create a huge expanse of public land around the city’s core and protect it forever in its natural state.
Grasshoppers have been featured in cinema. The 1957 film
Beginning of the End portrayed giant grasshoppers attacking Chicago. In the 1998 Pixar film
A Bug's Life, the heroes are the members of an ant colony, and the lead villain and his henchmen are grasshoppers.
Illinois Grasshopper 
Digital images shared in this post were captured in RAW using an EOS 5DIII, EF 500mm f/4L IS II and EF Extenders 1.4x and 2x for a 700mm and 1000mm extended configurations. Processing was performed in Lightroom and noise processing in Topaz DeNoise6. A Canon EF 25 II Extension Tube was used to adjust the minimum focusing distance of the extended lens.
The eastern tiger swallowtail is a species of swallowtail butterfly native to eastern North America. It is one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern United States. The first known drawing of a North America butterfly was of an eastern tiger swallowtail. It was drawn by John White in 1587, during Sir Walter Raleigh's third expedition to Virginia.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (female)
Cook County encompasses more than 1,600 square miles in northeastern Illinois. The county stretches about forty miles north to south and extends westward about thirty miles from Lake Michigan to the Fox River Valley.
The American bullfrog inhabits large, permanent water bodies, such as swamps, ponds, and lakes, where it is usually found along the water's edge. The bullfrog is native to eastern North America. Its natural range extends from the Atlantic Coast to as far west as Oklahoma and Kansas.
Bullfrog 
Much has changed in the more than 100 years since the creation of the Forest Preserves District of Cook County (FPDCC). Initially, the FPDCC sought to purchase and protect the remaining tracts of forest within Cook County. In 1961, the Illinois General Assembly granted the FPDCC the right to purchase "land capable of being reforested" and thereby reintroduce plant and animal life into the forests.
Hibiscus moscheutos (rose mallow, swamp rose-mallow, crimsoneyed rosemallow, eastern rosemallow) is a species of flowering plant in the family
Malvaceae. It is a cold-hardy perennial wetland plant that can grow in large colonies. In the wild the plant exists in numerous forms with petal colors ranging from pure white to deep rose, most have an eye of deep maroon.
Swamp Rose Mallow 
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https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.htmlDragonflies are predators, both in their aquatic l... (
