Dragonflies & Damselflies
Ancient aerial hunters that patrol ponds and streams, dragonflies and their slimmer damselfly cousins are among the most acrobatic insects alive. These guides cover how to tell them apart, their aquatic youth, and their flight.
Airborne mosquito control, free of charge. Seeing them means clean water is nearby, which is good news all round.
Size
20 to 150 mm
wingspan
Diet
Other flying insects
mosquitoes high on the list
Habitat
Ponds and streams
larvae live underwater
Flight
Four wings, independent
hover, reverse, dart
Age
300 million years
among the first fliers
Life cycle
Most of a dragonfly's life is spent underwater. Only the final weeks are airborne.
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Egg Laid in or near water, pushed into pond plants or dropped onto the surface.
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Nymph An underwater hunter for months or years, breathing through gills and eating mosquito larvae.
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Adult It climbs a reed, splits its skin, and emerges to fly. The glittering weeks are the encore.
If a garden gets a healthy pond, dragonflies are usually the first big arrivals, and I take it as the pond passing its exam. They spend most of their lives as underwater hunters; the few glittering weeks in the air are the encore.
Sam Fielding · field note · about Sam
Typical season
Adults on the wing through summer; larvae hunt underwater year-round.
Often confused with
Lacewings
Much smaller and softer, with pale green net-veined wings held tent-like
A dragonfly catches prey mid-air on more than nine of every ten attempts, a hit rate no lion or shark comes close to.
Dragonflies
The heavy hitters. Big-bodied, fast, and holding their wings out flat at rest. The best mosquito control your yard can host.
Start here
At rest a damselfly folds its wings neatly along its body while a dragonfly holds them out flat, the fastest way to tell them apart.
Damselflies
The dainty cousins. Slimmer, weaker fliers that fold their wings back at rest. Same underwater-then-airborne life, same appetite for small pests.