An Ancient Insect

text and photos : Norma A. Hubbard   (August 2016)

Several years ago I was at the Woolgathering when Ron was exhibiting his pottery. I was wearing a summer dress printed with colourful, large flowers. While Ron was talking to a customer, an incredible red dragonfly landed on my dress. In amazement, I carefully turned towards Ron and his customer and quietly said, “Look.” That was when the woman hit me with her purse! “What the heck!” I yelled. Seeing my anger, she sheepishly replied, “I thought you were afraid?” Obviously it wasn’t me who was afraid of this amazing insect, and anyone who knows me well, knows I love dragonflies. Sadly, I have yet to see another red dragonfly like that one, but there are plenty of others in my garden.

Dragonflies (Libellula) are part of the order Odonata and the suborder Anisoptera. Dragonflies are among our oldest insects, basically they are the dinosaurs of bugs. Fossils show us that dragonflies were once as large as hawks with wingspans of about 75 cm (30 inches). Now that is a bug I might be a bit frightened of, not our local dragonflies.

The life cycle of dragonflies includes eggs that hatch into larvae, also known as nymphs, which live in fresh water; the nymph goes through a dozen or more molts, finally emerging as a flying insect, a dragonfly. Since most of their life is spent in water, they are considered aquatic insects even though they fly as adults. They are carnivores and the nymphs are not fussy eaters; they eat just about anything smaller than themselves, including tadpoles, minnows, mosquito larvae, and even other dragonfly nymphs. However it is a bug eat bug world out there and nymphs are eaten by other insects, as well as fish and birds. Adults will catch other insects in flight, like mosquitoes, which is a good thing, but sadly, they will also eat butterflies. Dragonflies have excellent eye sight and can spot their prey from over 12 meters (40 feet) away. We have only one lens per eye, dragonflies have compound eyes which can have up to 30,000 lenses. They are also impressive flyers with speeds up to 48 km (about 30 mph).

There are over 5,000 named species of dragonflies in North America. There are many myths about dragonflies. In parts of Europe, it is known as the “devil’s needle” because it is thought to be the devil’s tool to capture your soul; or in Sweden, as the “blind stinger” as it was believed it could pick out your eyes or sew them shut! Dragonflies do not sting, but they can gently ‘bite’ if provoked. However it is not all doom and gloom for these incredible insects. In Scandinavia, it was thought to be the symbol of a love goddess; In Japan, the “Tombo” or dragonfly is highly regarded. It is their national emblem and they have a national dragonfly reserve. Plus in both China and Japan, dragonflies are considered by many to be holy, in part due to possible medicinal powers.

I don’t know the names of most dragonflies and I don’t believe they are holy, but I do enjoy watching them dart around my garden, and with bats on the decline, I appreciate dragonflies eating mosquitoes. So leave some ponds for their habitat, and be cautious if you really must use pesticides, as it would be a shame to poison our ancient dragonflies who have survived for so many years.

Source: Discover Life [online] www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Odonata