20 Amazing and Little-Known Dragonfly Facts | Amazing Facts 4U
- Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve, some 300 million years ago. The dragonfly has hardly changed over this period.
- There are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies.
- From the time a dragonfly egg hatches, it can live anywhere from six months to six years, but only about two months as an actual dragonfly. Most of the time is spent as a nymph in water.
- Amazingly a dragonfly nymph breathes through its butt. The dragonfly nymph’s gills are inside its rectum. The dragonfly nymph will pull water into its anus, where gas exchange occurs. When the dragonfly expels the water from its rear, it propels the nymph forward, providing the added benefit of locomotion.
- The amazing fact is that despite their menacing appearance, dragonflies cannot sting and are harmless to us.
- Nearly all of the dragonfly’s head is the eye, so they have incredible amazing supervision. It has about 30,000 lenses covering the retina of its eye, and thus sees these many images where we see only one. All these images are integrated into one image.
- Dragonfly eyes perceive the normal color spectrum, along with UV light.
- Dragonflies have an amazing 360-degree vision and don’t have blind spots. Most insects have a blind spot behind and underneath them. Dragonflies are notoriously hard to catch.
- It’s amazing that a dragonfly flaps its wings 20 to 40 times a second, bees and houseflies 200 times, some mosquitoes 600 times, and a tiny gnat 1,000 times.
- The amazing fact is that they Calculate Velocity and direction of prey for A Perfect Kill. They’re so efficient in their hunting that in one study, the dragonflies caught 90 to 95 percent of the prey released into their enclosure. In contrast, sharks manage only 50% while lions about 25 %.
- Dragon Fly jaws can open as wide as their entire head, allowing them to eat virtually anything within reason.
- Amazingly Dragonflies can Isolate their prey In a swarm. It can single out one target in a swarm, then zero in on it exclusively while remaining aware of the rest of the swarm to avoid a collision.
- Dragonflies amazingly mash their prey to a pulp with powerful serrated jaws. Most small dragonflies aren’t powerful enough to break a human’s skin. To a small fly, however, those jaws mean instant death.
- The amazing thing is that the four wings of dragonflies operate independently of each other, allowing them to maneuver in mid-air like a helicopter. They can hover, fly forwards, backward, and sideways, and instantly change direction whenever they need to.
- Dragonflies can even fly upside down if they need to. No other insect has such a mastery.
- Dragonflies, which eat insects as adults, are great control of the mosquito population. A single dragonfly can eat 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day. They have an amazing appetite and never stop eating.
- Dragonflies are expert fliers and if they can’t fly, they starve because they only eat prey they catch while flying.
- An amazing fact is that a dragonfly called the globe skinner has the longest migration of any insect, 11,000 miles back and forth across the Indian Ocean.
- Dragonflies can fly up to 50 miles per hour.
- Dragonflies have six legs but amazingly cannot walk!
If you want more insightful thoughts, go and subscribe to our blog: www.mesmerizingquotes.com
