Two players, two very different styles.

Dragonfly: bold and fast.

Damselfly: nimble and precise.

Welcome to the pond.

The game is simple, fly and hunt.

So who's your pick?

From afar, they look similar.

They're ancient cousins descended from the same 300 million year old ancestor.

But these expert hunters have evolved different strategies even within the same pond.

Dragonflies rocket across the upper strata of the pond scape reaching speeds up to 30 miles an hour.

Their four wings move independently so they can switch between two flight modes: out of sync for lift and twists, or nearly in sync for bursts of speed.

Even when they touch down, they keep their wings outstretched ready to go.

Damselflies sit and wait.

With wings folded neatly along their backs on the lookout for prey.

When they take off, they hover like helicopters down low in the vegetation.

They need to be nimble.

Maneuvering between the chutes and stems crowding the airspace.

Plants down here break up the airflow, creating swirling wind currents.

Flying in that turbulence requires some serious control.

To understand how damselflies pull this off.

Researchers at UC Berkeley put these graceful flyers in a wind tunnel and saw that when they hit rough air, the damselflies maintain stability by quickly tweaking the flapping of their four wings.

You may have picked your jet pack, but now let's consider your headset.

Both players have compound eyes made of a mosaic of thousands of tiny eye units.

Their brains stitch the information together into one big, clear picture, but they each see the world differently.

How would you like a pair of these babies?

Damselfly eyes are dichoptic, two separate eyes like us.

But these wide-set eyes give damselflies an ultra-panoramic view.

From a perch, they lock in on their prey.

Just like humans, their brains compare two slightly different images to calculate distance and depth.

And boom!

They snatch their prey with precision.

Dragonflies have holoptic eyes.

They wrap around their head, giving them a nearly 360 degree view.

These eyes act like huge surveillance cameras.

Flying in the open air, they can detect movement that happens anywhere around them and track it... or avoid it!

In one study, researchers at UC Davis showed that dragonflies are experts of interception.

Turns out it's a killer hunting skill.

They anticipate where their prey is going and snag it with a 95% success rate.

Watch how they both use their spindly legs like a basket.

Ah, fresh catch.

Now our damselfly can eat in peace Or try to.

That move right there is damselfly for, "Not now, man."

So did you pick your player?

Team damselfly, or team dragonfly?

In this game, everyone's a well-fed winner.