File:Brown Dragonfly.jpg

English: A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order ‘Odonata’. Dragonflies are are not actually a fly even though they both have six legs and three body parts, head, thorax and abdomen. The main difference between them is that flies only have two wings whereas dragonflies have four wings. Dragonflies are sometimes confused with Damselflies.

Even though they are both members of the same order, they have slight differences whereby when resting, damselflies hold their wings together, a dragonfly holds its wings horizontally or slightly down and forward and their hindwings are broader near the base.

The eyes on a damselfly are separated, in most dragonflies the eyes touch. However, being in the same order makes their life cycles quite similar. The Dragonfly name comes from their fierce jaws, which they use to catch their prey.

DRAGONFLY REPRODUCTION

A dragonfly undergoes incomplete metamorphosis. Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often on floating or emergent plants. When laying eggs, some species will submerge themselves completely in order to lay their eggs on a suitable surface. After about two weeks, the eggs hatch and an immature dragonfly, or nymph, emerges. The nymphs are not as attractive as the adults. They have tiny wings and a large lower lip, which they use to catch their prey (often mosquito larvae).

See the slideshow below of the Dragonfly metamorphosis process courtesy of Christine Gamble who captured the Dragonfly emerging from its larvae.

CHARACTERISTICS

A Dragonfly has two large compound eyes which take up most of its head. Dragonflies have long, delicate, membranous wings which are transparent and some have light yellow colouring near the tips. Their bodies are long and slender and they have a short antennae.

Dragonflies are very colourful, for example the Green Darner Dargonfly has a green thorax and a blue segmented abdomen. Some are red like the Comet Darner and yellow like the Emerald Darner.

Dragonflies breath through spiracles which are tiny holes located on their abdomen. They can beat each pair of wings together or separately and their rear wings can be out of phase with the front wings. Their wing beat is around 50 – 90 beats per second.