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Dragonfly
Odonata
BENEFICIAL
Dragonflies, also called Mosquito Hawks, are often seen zipping around ponds and fields, eating mosquitos and gnats. Adult dragonflies are 1 to 4 inches in length. They have enormous wrap-around compound eyes, and pencil-shaped bodies with two pairs of stiff wings held straight out to the sides. These flying jewels may be brilliant red, blue, yellow, green - even pink; the "Halloween Pennant" is orange and black! Damselflies, their more delicate cousins, look similar, but fold their wings over their backs when perched.
Life Cycle:
Egg, nymph, adult. Adults lay their eggs in water. The aquatic nymphs may live among pond vegetation for up to four years, feeding voraciously on other insects - even small fish - before finally climbing up a plant stalk to begin life in the air. The skin of the nymph splits along the back, and the soft adult emerges. Before the adult's skin and wings harden, it cannot fly and is very vulnerable to birds.
Diet:
Dragonflies use their legs as a basket to scoop up flying insects. They can eat as many as 300 mosquitoes a day! Dragonflies neither bite (unless mishandled) nor sting, and should be welcomed in the garden as beneficial predators.
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