- Dragonflies
have been around 300 million years. One prehistoric fossil had a wingspan
of 2 1/2 feet!
- Today,
the largest dragonfly is found in Costa Rica. It has a wingspan of 7 1/2
inches.
- Dragonfly
eyes contain up to 30,000 individual lenses. Human eyes only have one.
- They
have two sets of wings. They don’t have to beat their wings in unison like
other insects do. Their front wings can be going up while their backs ones
are going down.
- Excellent
and strong fliers, they can loop-the-loop, hover, and fly backwards.
- Dragonfly
nymphs (the first stage after hatching) live in the water for about a
year.
- While
underwater they eat mosquito nymphs, tiny fish, and pollywogs. When they
have matured to airborne insects, they catch mosquitoes and gnats in
mid-air before devouring them.
- After
leaving the water and becoming flying insects, they only live for about a
month.
- Their
natural predators are birds.
- Among
the many names for dragonflies around the world are Old Glassy from China,
Water Dipper from England and Big Needle of Wings from the ancient Celts.
- A bee flaps its wings about 300 times per second, but a dragonfly
flaps its wings at only about 30 beats per second. (Fact, dragonflies have
two sets of wings so they don’t have to beat them as much to fly.)
- A
dragonfly is a very strong and good flyer, and can fly at speeds of up to
36 miles per hour. (fact - but not
all dragonflies are that fast – one was clocked at this speed in
Australia)
- Dragonflies
are known as snake doctors because they can bring dead snakes back to
life. (myth)
- There
were huge dinosaur dragonflies that lived 300 million years ago. (Fact –
the largest fossil found had a 2 ½ foot wingspan, and currently there are
dragonflies in Costa Rica that measure 7 ½ inches across the wings.)
- Dragonflies
have huge stingers and some people are allergic to their stings and can
die. (Myth – the thing that looks like a stinger on a dragonfly is actually
called a clasper and the male dragonfly uses it to hold onto the female
when they are mating.)
- There
are about 5,000 different species of dragonflies all over the world except
in Antarctica. 450 of the species can be found in the United States and
about 80 species in British Columbia. (Fact, most of the 5,000 species are
found in remote, tropical areas.)
- A
dragonfly’s eyes have about 30,000 lenses and a dragonfly can see all the
way around it, but they don’t see details very well. (Fact, a human eye
only has one lens and sees better than a dragonfly, but only to the front
and side of them.)
- From
the time a dragonfly egg hatches, it can live anywhere from six months to
six years, but only about two months as an actual dragonfly. (Fact, most
of the time spent is as a nymph in the water before the dragonfly’s metamorphosis
into a full grown dragonfly.)
- In the
old days, dragonflies would seek out bad kids and sew their mouths together
with their claspers while they slept. Dragonflies were known as the
devil’s darning needles. (Myth – dragonflies don’t have pockets to carry
the thread to the beds of sleeping wicked children.)
- A
dragonfly’s scientific name is Odonta, which comes from the words
“tooth-jawed” because the entomologist (insect scientist), Johann Christian
Fabricius, who named them studied the dragonflies’ mouths in order to distinguish
the different species. Now their wings are studied as well to classify dragonflies.
(Fact – other names for dragonflies around the world are water dipper in
England, old glassy in China, and the ancient Celts called dragonflies big
needle of wings.)
- A long
time ago, Japan was named Akitsushima, which translates to "Isle of
the Dragonfly" (I named my nation on face book this). There are
two legends to how Japan got this name. The first legend is that
Japan was named after the Dragonfly because the country itself resembles a
dragonfly's tail. The second legend is that the Emperor of Japan was
bitten by a housefly, and that housefly was eaten by a dragonfly, so in gratitude,
the Emperor named Japan in honor the Dragonfly.
- Dragonflies
are also very sacred in Japan and many samurai wore dragonfly symbols on
their armor.
- Way
back when Dragonflies were known by many names. Two of those names
were; the devil's darning needles, and horse biters. Parents would
tell their children that if they didn't behave the dragonflies would come
in at night and sow their mouths shut. There was also a belief that
the dragonflies had stingers in their tales and that they used these
stingers to upset the horses at night, but really, the dragonflies seen
near the upset horses were really helping the horses by eating the insects
that were really biting them.
- Dragonflies
mate while flying and the males are very possessive. If a male
dragonfly wants to mate with a female dragonfly that already has another
male dragonflies eggs inside her, the new male dragonfly will rip them out
of her and insert his own.
