Dragonflies & Damselflies

Dragonflies and Damselflies are in the insect order called Odonata.
Dragonflies belong to a sub-order known as Anisoptera.
Damselflies belong to the sub-order Zygoptera.

This Dragonfly was seen on my gate at home in Beckenham in September.

Dragonflies have been on earth for 300 million years. Fossilized dragonflies from the
Triassic period have been found in both Queensland and Sydney in Australia.

Dragonflies are territorial. The males will guard and hunt in a
territory usually close to ponds, rivers and swamps. They have a favourite
spot to hang out and keep an eye on their territory.

The female dragonflies tend to roam further away from water and are duller in colour than the males.

They hunt while flying through the air and catch insects like mosquitoes, in flight. They can do this fancy flying because their wings do not beat at the same time which allows the dragonflies to make tight turns and to fly backwards.

This is the dragonflies wing.

If they have to step on the gas, some dragonflies can accelerate up to 40km hour in short bursts and beat their wings 40 times per second.

Life Cycle

Mating is done while stationary or during flight. The male clasps the female on the neck with the tip of his abdomen, as seen in the picture here taken at Piney Lakes in Perth W.A

The female then clasps the male's second and third abdomen segments with her abdomen. They can fly around attached like this. The female then deposits the eggs in the water while the male stays guard to make sure she doesn't get eaten.

The nymph hatches from the egg and spends the cooler months in the water as nymphs. Nymphs stalk their prey such as tadpoles, mosquitoes and worms. The nymph have a spring loaded weapon on the front of their heads that grab the prey. The dragonfly nymph is one of the few nymph insects that do not eat the same food that they will eat when they are an adult. In this picture below of a nymph you can see the outstretched mouthparts (not an arm) called a 'mask', that springs forward to capture its prey. The claws or teeth on the end can open and shut.

The life cycle is;

Egg (usually laid under water)
Nymph (free moving, water dwelling nymph) The nymph lives for several weeks (or years depending on the species) underwater and undergoes a series of up to 12 moults or instars as it grows. It emerges from the water when it is ready to undergo its final moult and climbs onto a plant or rock where the "skin" splits to reveal the winged adult.
Adult.

Dragonflies	Damselflies
Hind wings are broader than the forewings, and wings are always held horizontal (like airplane wings) when resting as they can not fold their wings in.	Both pairs of wings are slender almost equal in length. Wings are held in next to the body when resting.
Nymphs do not have leaf like gills at the end of their abdomen. Dragonfly nymphs have gills within their bodies to breathe. Photographed at the Western Australian Museum Perth	Nymphs have three leaf-like gills at the tip of the abdomen. . *These three gills at the end of the nymph allow the nymph to breathe.*
Dragonflies can fly away from water or stay around water.	Damselflies stay close to the water surface.
Dragonflies eyes usually touch in the centre.	Damselflies eyes don't touch in the centre
	Damselflies are more delicate and thinner than dragonflies.

How do dragonfly nymph breathe?

The oxygen is in the water. The nymph has gills in the abdomen which filters the oxygen from the water.

This nymph was photographed at the Western Australian Museum Perth

How do damselfly nymph breathe?

Those 3 gills at the end of the nymph sieve the water that has the oxygen in it. The gills have blood vessels in them. Because the walls of the gills are very thin the oxygen goes straight into the blood. Not all underwater insects breathe like this.

Probably a Orthetrum caledonicum Libellulidae or common blue dragonfly. This is found over most of Australia. This was photographed at Piney Lakes in Perth W.A.

This could be a Diplacodes haematodes Libellulidae. It was a large yellow dragonfly with black markings and was photographed on the banks of the Blackwood River in Western Australia.

This was photographed at Bibra Lake in Perth W.A. and we think it is a damselfly.

This dragonfly was photographed at Karnup Nature Reserve south of Perth in October.

This large dragonfly was also photographed at Karnup Nature Reserve, Perth in October.

On the right is a close up.

It has also been seen at Neerabup National Park north of Perth.

This dragonfly was photographed at Neerabup National Park north of Perth in September and has also been seen at Thomson Lake in Perth.

What do dragonflies eat?

They are hunters and will catch mosquitoes, butterflies, moths other insects and smaller dragonflies in their jaws in mid flight.

Damselflies seize their prey with their legs.

Who eats dragonflies and damselflies?

Damselflies can be caught in webs by spiders. Dragonflies and damselflies can also be eaten by frogs, birds such as wagtails, other insects like praying mantids, and larger dragonflies will eat other dragonflies and damselflies.

These damselflies were seen at the Hamersley Gorge in the Pilbara when there was water flowing down the gorge and into pools, in December.

This attractive damselfly was seen at Forestdale Lake in Perth in October

This damselfly was photographed at Thompson Lake

This same damselfly is common at Brixton Street Conservation Park in Beckenham Perth and at Jandakot Regional Park in Perth and at Brickwood Reserve in Byford.

This damselfly was also seen at Brixton Street Conservation Park. You can see it is camouflaging with the stick.

What plants are important to dragonflies and damselflies?

The reeds inside the ponds or lakes are important as they allow insects to land, they like to have a high lookout point in order to make sure they are not going to be the next meal and to guard their territory. If you have a pond and you want to encourage dragonflies and damselflies to eat the mosquitoes then go to a native pond nursery and plant in the centre of your pond bulrushes or other pond plants. Remember everything must eat plants or eat something that has eaten plants. So how do these insects get their plant food as they are hunters? The answer is in the wide variety of insect food they eat. Part of their diet is to eat butterflies, what do butterflies eat? Nectar from flowering plants. Also they eat ants from time to time, and what do ants eat? Grasses, seeds and decaying wood.

Where do dragonflies go over winter? Why don't you see them at the lakes and ponds?

The adults die off at the end of autumn and the new nymph have not yet fully
developed but will come out of the water for their final instar or moult
anywhere from two months to a year after hatching from their egg when the weather warms up again.

Hundreds of these large dragonflies were seen at Cardup Nature Reserve near Byford in October, after there had been a few warm days. These large dragonflies are harder to photograph than the smaller ones as they are far more easily startled. It took me all day to get this photo and I ended up taking over a dozen photos and then commando crawling several metres to get this close.
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This dragonfly was seen at Kings Park, Perth in August. It was caught in a spiders web.>>>>>

These dragonflies were seen in Margaret River in the southwest, in January

Assignment: Find out how the wings on the dragonfly rotate. Make a model from clay for the head thorax and abdomen and choose something that will rotate for the wings. Don't forget to make large bulging eyes as well.

If it is not winter go to your local pond or lake and watch how the dragonflies and damselflies go about their daily business. If you sit still, close to the waters edge, you should be able to get very close to the dragonflies as they come and go.

Check out our page on more Western Australia's Dragonflies from the Western Australian Museum in Perth

Here below is just some of the sites and text we found interesting and informative.

"An Introduction to Australian Insects" by Phillip W. Hadlington, Judith A. Johnston
"A Field Guide To Insects In Australia" by Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey.

Click here to see other fantastic fiction and non fiction books
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