Dragonflies
Dragonflies are fascinating insects who love to hang out near ponds, canals, and woodlands, where they whizz about catching flies and midges in mid-air.
But don’t worry, they’re friendly to humans!
Here's some fun facts about dragonflies
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Dragonflies are ancient and have lived on Earth for 300 million years!
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They are super speedy and can zoom and zip up to 30 miles per hour.
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They can fly backwards, forwards, upside down and hover perfectly still.
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Dragonflies have massive eyes made up of 30,000 tiny lenses so they can see all around them at all times.
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Their eyes can filter out the harsh glare of the sun so they can spot midges and flies.
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Their wings are like glass which shimmer with different colours in sunlight – blue, green, purple and gold.
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Most of a dragonfly's life is spent underwater as a ‘nymph.’ They live for 1 – 3 years in ponds and rivers as a baby but when they transform into full dragonflies, they live for only a few weeks.
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Unusually, when they’re resting, their 4 transparent wings stay stretched out like an aeroplane.
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A group of dragonflies is called a swarm.
How Your Family Can Help Dragonflies
If you don’t have a pond, you can create a mini pond with a large shallow plant pot or dish filled with rainwater and some flat stones around it, so dragonflies have a nice spot to hover over water and rest in the sun.
If you have a pond, you can plant flowers like yellow flag iris, pink flowering rush, or purple loosestrife in and around it for baby dragonflies to climb out of the water when they’re ready to fly as adults.
Dragonflies love a wild natural habitat so don’t trim and prune the plants around your pond and let them grow wildly.