Dragonfly Insect Among Nature’s Best Fliers

By John Marshall
Published on January 29, 2010
article image
by iStockphoto.com/Kian Khoon Tan
Massive eyes cover the dragonfly’s head and make it an awesome and highly efficient hunter.

Insects, with few exceptions, rank up there with spiders and snakes as being among the least appreciated creatures of the wild. One of those exceptions, however, is the dragonfly. Along with butterflies, dragonflies fascinate and capture our imaginations. No doubt, their prowess as aviators has a lot to do with that fascination. Dragonflies flit and dart to and fro, up and down, hovering and zigzagging. Their aerial movements are the envy of human pilots and aeronautical engineers everywhere – their ability to catch (and devour) flying insect pests is nothing short of amazing.

Dragonflies, and their smaller cousins, the damselflies, are members of the insect order Odonata. True dragonflies belong to the suborder Anisoptera, while the damselflies belong to the suborder Zygoptera. The two groups can be distinguished by a variety of different traits.

Dragonflies are usually larger with heavier bodies than damselflies. Dragonflies are also strong, fast fliers, whereas damselflies tend to flit about more daintily. Damselfly eyes are located on either side of the head, widely separated from each other. The eyes of dragonflies are extremely large and are positioned so close to each other that they almost touch. At rest, a dragonfly’s wings are held horizontally and perpendicular to the body, like the wings of a plane, while a damselfly folds its wings back along its long, slender abdomen.

There are about 6,500 species of dragonflies known worldwide, with more than 400 species found in North America. They are grouped into several families, with names like Skimmers, Darners and Clubtails. Members of the order Odonata are among the most ancient groups of insects, with the modern forms first appearing more than 240 million years ago. The predecessors of modern dragonflies and damselflies appeared more than 300 million years ago. One of these, Meganeura monyi, remains the largest flying insect known. Fossils of this giant dragonfly ancestor show it had a wingspan of 2-1/2 feet compared with modern species wing spans of just a few inches.

Dragonfly bodies

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096