Amazing Facts about Dragonfly

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Odonata
Suborder: Epiprocta
Infraorder: Anisoptera

Amazing Facts about Dragonfly

1. Eye contains 30,000 lenses.
2. 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.)
3. 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)
4. Dragonflies are known as snake doctors because they can bring dead snakes back to life. (myth)
5. 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.)
6. 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.)
7. 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.)
8. 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.)
9. 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.)
10. 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.)
11. 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.)

Common species

Southern hemisphere
Common Spreadwing Lestes plagiatus
Common Threadtail Elattoneura glauca
Goldtail Allocnemis leucosticta
Swamp Bluet Africallagma glaucum
Pinhey's Whisp Agriocnemis pinheyi
Black-tailed Bluet Azuragrion nigridorsum
Common Citril Ceriagrion glabrum
Yellow-faced Sprite Pseudagrion citricola
Gambel's Sprite Pseudagrion gamblesi
Hagen's Sprite Pseudagrion hageni
Hamon's Sprite Pseudagrion hamoni
Kersten's Sprite Pseudagrion kersteni
Masai Sprite Pseudagrion massaicum
Pseudagrina\atal Sprite Pseudagrion spernatum
Orange Emperor Anax speratus
Common Thorntail Ceratogomphus pictus
jack Notogomphus praetorius
Paragomphus cog panorpoides and Acisoma trifidum
Banded Groundling Brachythemis leucosticta
Broad Scarlet Crocothemis erythraea
Little Scarlet Crocothemis sang
Blck Percher Diplacodes lefebvrii
Black-tailed Skisciothemis farinosa
Two-striped Skimmer Orthetrum caffrum
Epaulet Skimmer Orthetrum chrysostigma
Julia Skimmer Orthetrum julia
Palpopleura p\ithemis arteriosa
Dropwing Trithemis furva
Kirby's Dropwing Trithemis kirbyi
Jaunty Dropwing Trithemis stictica

Northern hemisphere
Broad-bodied ChaserEmperor, Anax imperator
Keeled Skimmer, Orthetrum coerulescens
Black-tailed Skimmer, Orthetrum cancellatum
Common Whitetail, Libellula lydia
Migrant Hawker, Aeshna mixta
Azure Hawker, Aeshna caerulea
Southern Hawker, Aeshna cyanea
Norfolk Hawker, Aeshna isosceles
Common Hawker, Aeshna juncea
Red-veined Darter, Sympetrum fonscolombii
Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum
Vagrant Darter, Sympetrum vulgatum
Yellow-winged Darter, Sympetrum flaveolum
Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa
Four-spotted Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata
Scarce Chaser, Libellula fulva
Green Darner, Anax junius
Downy Emerald, Cordulia aenea
Blue-eyed Darner, Aeshna multicolor
Roseate Skimmer, Orthemis ferruginea
Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa
Great Pondhawk, Erythemis vesiculosa
Comet Darner, Anax longipes
Banded Pennant, Celithemis fasciata
Somatochlora margarita, Somatochlora margarita