What Do Dragonflies Eat: 10 Facts About Dragonflies

Dragonfly is a natural predatory flying insect. They love to eat meat and mostly feed on Mosquitoes, Midges, Butterflies, Moths, Bees, Flies, Gnats, Mayflies, and other dragonflies that are smaller than their size.

Their diet is not strictly limited and being airborne most of the time, they are always after the food, hunting and eating heavily throughout the day whatever they catch.

Common Food of Dragonfly

The larvae of dragonflies feed on insects, worms, small fishes, and even tadpoles while being in the water and adults mainly hunt down the flying insects. Mosquitoes, midges, mayflies, and dragonflies, all of them require water for them to complete their lifecycle.

While mosquitoes and midges breed in more of a kind of stagnant standing water, dragonfly hunts them down as one of their favorite things to do. It has been found that dragonflies can eat 100s of them in one day projecting on their greedy and voracious nature.

Feeding Behavior of Dragonfly

The frightening feeding behavior of dragonflies is sure to surprise you. Apart from their beauty by appearance, they are highly skillful and efficient predators with a 95% success rate.

For every attempt made on the prey, dragonflies are almost certain of catching and hunting them down. Their ability is unmatched even in comparison with other merciless hunters like lions and sharks.

Almost all flying insects are a nuisance to humans. Mosquitoes being pests, bite, typical bees and wasps sting while flies are extremely awful and disgusting. Certainly, flying insects aren't limited to these but you can bet on dragonflies as they are magic to this world.

The dragonflies possess some extraordinary qualities apart from their huge role in balancing ecology by feeding on a wide variety of insects and pests like mosquitoes and midges. Some of the astonishing facts about the dragonflies are detailed below:

It has been found that dragonflies took to the air some 300 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. People have discovered the fossils of dragonflies that have a wingspan of around 30 inches, one of the largest insects that ever lived.

Today's dragonflies have a wingspan of 2-5 inches with three body parts, a hard exoskeleton, three pairs of legs, and a pair of antennae. They are believed to be similar in structure to an ancient group consisting largest insects to ever live on this earth.

Dragonfly initiates its life from the water. The female lays her eggs usually on the surface of the water. After going through hatching, the nymph dragonfly spends its complete period living in the water.

The nymph feeds on aquatic creatures hunting down invertebrates such as tadpoles, mosquitoes, fish, and other insect larvae. In many cases, they have been found to feed on each other as well. The larvae stage in the water can last up to two years.

While spending most of the time in the water, the dragonfly nymphs make the best use of water for everything they do. While inhaling the gas, these nymphs are found to pull water into their anus to facilitate the gas exchange.

Similarly, when the water is released, it forces the nymphs to speed up forward. This true jet-propulsion mechanism helps them to shoot through the water in the time of fast locomotion while also aiding in breathing. This is interesting, isn't it?

The anti-bacterial wings of the dragonfly have been proposed through a study by the American Chemistry Society. It has been found that the wings of dragonflies have tiny spikes, called nano-pillars on their surface that help bugs stick to walls.

Whenever any bacteria come in contact with these wings, they can't move any further and if tried, the skin of the bacteria will get damaged resulting in greater problems for them.

After having lived for some years in the water, the dragonfly nymphs are now ready to crawl out of it. The first several hours or days in some cases, they crawl toward the rocks or plant stems for the final molting, expanding the body to full potential.

These newly emerged adults are soft, pale, and tender being highly vulnerable to other predators. During the initial days, they can't fly and hunt to their full capacity, most of which are therefore consumed by the young dragonflies or birds.

Mating is somewhat difficult for the dragonflies. The complication maybe because it takes coordination and planning for both individuals. The mating dragonflies are sometimes referred to as the wheel position which seems romantic for the human eyes as they tend to form a heatshape.

The mating occurs when both dragonflies are bent in a tight loop and the male releases the sperm to the abdomen of the female. Many times, a rare flight sight may be visible around us where the mating couple flaps their wings as they continue mating.

Male dragonflies have their copulatory organ on the underside of the abdomen. They have different segments on the abdomen and in the ninth abdominal segment, the sperm of the male dragonflies are stored.

While preparing for the mating, male dragonflies have to fold their abdomen to transfer the sperm to their penis which is kind of peculiar in the insect family. Usually, all the other insects have their sex organ at the tip of their abdomen.

Dragonflies' vision is no lesser than their flight. They can see the normal color spectrum such as red, green, and blue as well as UV and polarized light waves. The ability to see polarized light waves has been helping them in the reduction of the impact of sun glare on their vision.

The head of a dragonfly is entirely all eyes. The multiple facets of the head are found to have vision of their own and there are more than 25000 thousands of such facets. This allows them to have a 360-degree view of their environment without any blind spots making them excellent hunters.

The wings of the dragonfly are specially built because of which they can fly in any direction while bringing the change on it very quickly. With such ease during the flight, dragonflies can comfortably eat while flying. They have mastered the art of eating on the run.

Dragonflies can analyze the motion of their prey tracking their every move and perfecting the capture. In about milliseconds, they are found to forecast everything that needs to be done while attacking the flying prey. It has been studied a dragonfly can fly forward at a speed of up to 30 miles per hour.

Dragonflies are ectothermic insects which means they are unable to regulate their internal body temperature themselves while entirely depending upon their environment. Therefore, dragonflies need to thermoregulate their bodies.

They have different strategies to cope with this phenomenon depending on the species. Some dragonflies achieve this by changing colors while some rely on the sunlight. It has also been observed that some of them exercise the rapid movement of their wings to adjust their body temperature.

This common question always seems to make people curious. You should be aware that dragonflies are not bees or wasps nor are any flies that have a stinger. They do have mouths with large and powerful jaws that can crunch only flying insects and their prey.

However, if you provoke or handle it roughly, it might become agitated, and try to respond by attacking in its way even though it won't be able to sting or bite back because your skin won't break that easily.

There are thousands of species of dragonflies across the world. They all are different in their physical attributes with different colors and body development. However, almost all of them are likely to feed on similar categories of prey.

Some of the common dragonflies are introduced below:

Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturate)

The flame skimmer, also known as the firecracker skimmer, is native to western North America. They are usually found in warm ponds, streams, or hot springs in the southwestern part of the United States.

Male and female skimmers are quite different in appearance. Males are known for their entirely red or dark orange body while females are usually a medium or darker brown with some thin, yellow markings.

Spot-winged Glider (Pantala hymenaea)

Spot-winged Glider is native to North, Central, and South America. These dragonflies are migratory species, traveling and breeding widely in temporary water bodies across the world.

They are a more common species of dragonflies having been listed as the least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They usually have a cylindrical abdomen and broad hindwings with red eyes and brown-colored body in general.

Blue-eyed Darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor)

Blue-eyed Darner is found to have been a native of the western United States. They are usually large-sized dragonfly species having a length of up to 3 inches with bright blue eyes.

Beautifully decorated with a black and blue body and transparent wings, these dragonfly comes second in terms of emerging in the spring season following the California darner. They are found to hunt down small flying insects in their flight.

Common Green Darner (Anax junius)

Common green darner is one of the most common and abundant species of dragonflies throughout North America. It is the official insect for the state of Washington in the United States. This species is called the Common Green Darner because it resembles a darning needle.

They prefer to live near ponds or marshes during warm summer days and are known to migrate hundreds of miles yearly. They possess a thorax of green color that shines brightly in sunlight.

Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)

Eastern Pondhawk, also known as the common pondhawk, is a native to the eastern and central United States. They live near ponds, lakes, marshes, and slow-moving streams, where they hunt for insects.

Males and females are distinguishable by their appearance with females being bright green and having a banded abdomen while males have green faces with blue abdomens.

Water

Dragonflies are aquatic species that spend most of their time in the water. More specifically, they need water to lay their eggs. Different species of dragonflies prefer stagnant water in ponds while some prefer flowing water.

If you are trying to attract dragonflies in your yard then you might want to establish a water feature that is at least two feet deep. This will ensure more dragonflies around your place which will help you get rid of harmful mosquitoes and other wasps.

Vegetation Near Water Source

Different types of vegetation are favored by the dragonflies at their various stages of growth. For the protection of their eggs, submerged plants will be beneficial while for the nymphs, partially submerged vegetation will help them eventually get out of the water source.

Similarly, nearby plants and shrubs will help the adult dragonflies to perch and seek shelter.

Pollinator Plants Around Water

Apart from the water source including vegetation, you might as well want to grow pollinator plants that attract bees, butterflies, and moths. Dragonflies feed not only on mosquitoes and midges, but they also like small flying insects.

Growing pollinator plants like water lilies, buttercups, and irises will invite more small insects around your water source to which dragonflies feed on.

There are mainly three stages in the life cycle of all dragonflies. For descriptive information on all these stages, you might want to head downward:

Egg

Female dragonflies are responsible for laying eggs and they can lay hundreds of eggs during their entire lifetime. There are two different categories of the dragonfly's eggs: Endophytic and Exophytic.

Endophytic eggs are elongated in shape and are laid into plant materials such as plant stems or leaves while exophytic eggs are round, laid in a jelly-like substance, and deposited loosely into water.

Larva

The dragonfly's larva emerges from the eggs. They are found to spend most of their lifetime during this stage in the water feeding whatever comes their way, mostly insect larvae, crustaceans, worms, snails, leeches, tadpoles, and small fish.

Dragonflies are found to have transitioned straight from a larva to an adult. However, they are likely to undergo incomplete metamorphosis where the final molting of the larva conducts outside the water for several days before they are hardened and prepared.

Adult

A newly emerged adult dragonfly is denoted as a teneral. At this period, dragonflies are weak in flight and pale in coloration. They spend about a week away from the water to get transformed into mature adults with hardened wings and bodies.

After achieving adult coloration and sexual maturation, they are likely to begin fearsome hunting and feeding. They fly around the water source, pollinating plants, and other vegetation in search of the prey.