Dragonflies live near water for a purpose: their young are aquatic and they require water to complete their lifecycles.ĭragonflies undergo incomplete metamorphosis, which includes three stages of development (egg, larva and adult) unlike butterflies which undergo a four-stage, complete metamorphosis (egg, larva, pupa and adult.)Īfter the dragonfly egg hatches, the aquatic larva molts once and then starts hunting - eating almost any living thing smaller than itself! As the larva grows, it will molt numerous times until it matures into adulthood. While modern dragonflies have wingspans of about two to five inches, fossil dragonflies have been found with wingspans of up to two feet!īut the real magic about these insects involves their life cycles. A Brief Introduction to Dragonfliesĭragonflies or "odonates,” are among the most ancient insects and were some of the first winged insects to evolve, about 300 million years ago. Read on to learn what happens and find more fun facts about dragonflies. One of the most unique characteristics about dragonflies is that they live dual lives - their young are aquatic before transforming into the colorful, flying adults you see whizzing by. Lab experiments for this species have found that females are capable of laying over 5000 eggs.Summer is here and with it you likely have spent time near water - a local lake, pond, or river - which means you have also undoubtedly watched the aerial antics of dragonflies. ReproductionĪfter when both genders mate, the female flies singly, without the male attached, to lay her eggs by dipping the tip of her abdomen into rivers, lakes, or slow streams while hovering above it. They perch with their abdomen elevated and their wings drooping so the tips just touch the ground. Hunting occurs from rocks or bare sand from which they rest on. These dragonflies can not tolerate cooler temperatures and are rarely seen flying on cool or cloudy days. Adults generally fly from mid-July to mid-August. Unlike most species this dragonfly nymphs emerge as adults during the day. This helps them to breathe while buried by pumping water in and out of the tip of the abdomen. They will burrow into the sand or mud, leaving the upturned tip of their abdomen exposed. Plians clubtail nymphs can be very selective in their habitat choice and will often occur only in certain stretches of a particular river or stream. They will sometimes eat small fish and tadpoles. Nymphs of plains clubtails feed on a wide variety of aquatic insects, including mosquito larvae, other aquatic fly larvae, mayfly larvae, and freshwater shrimp. Plains clubtails will feed on almost any soft-bodied flying insect such as mosquitoes, flies, butterflies, moths, mayflies, and flying ants or termites. In Wisconsin, they have been documented to have a flight season from early June to mid-July. Another flight season it has is early April to mid-August. The plains clubtail has many flight seasons, mid-July to mid-August is the most common. Plains clubtails prefer moderately flowing rivers and large streams with muddy bottoms, and occasionally lakes. On each side of abdominal segments six through nine, there is a single, rear-facing spine. Its abdomen is thick for most of its length, then tapers to a rounded point at the end of segment ten. The nymph of the plains clubtail is a large in size with a maximum length of 1 5/16 inches (33 mm). As with other clubtails, the segments at the tip of its abdomen are wider than the rest. Its abdomen is black and is marked with a line of yellow dashes along the top. The base of its wings may be clouded with yellow where they attach to its body. The top of its thorax behind its head is marked with a parallel pair of yellow stripes, and every side of the thorax is marked with several diagonal yellow stripes. The base of this dragonfly is brownish black. The plains clubtail is a medium to large dragonfly with a length of 2 1/16 to 2 3/8 inches (52 to 60 mm).
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