Delving into the life cycle of Dragonflies and Damselflies

BY Warren Dick

Dragonflies and Damselflies are two distinctly different species with many hundreds of sub-species of each worldwide. In the greater Durban area we are quite blessed to have quite a few different species of these little brightly coloured helicopters to enjoy.

Dragonflies and Damselflies share many of the same characteristics, so for the most part I will be referring to both species in this article.

They start of their lives as an egg laid in water, ponds and stagnant pools are preferred by most, but some of the bigger Dragonflies do well even in raging rivers. When the eggs hatch the larva are usually dark in colour and sort of resemble the adults, however they are dull and do not have wings. The larva continues to live in water, where they catch and feed on small waterborne insects, tadpoles and even small fish. They catch their prey with the use of specially adapted mouth parts that work like little arms shooting out from under their throat with lightning speed.

These larva can live in the water for a few months or up to more than a year, depending on the species, and when the time is right they climb out of the water, onto a reed or a rock, where their drab brown exoskeleton bursts open and out comes the brightly coloured insect we all know, it then takes a while for the adult body and wings to dry, but once dried they can begin the adult part of their life’s journey.

As adults they can fly with great speed and agility, and are often seen flying around almost any sort of water body, even swimming pools. The adult insects are also carnivorous, catching and eating smaller insects in mid-air.

What are the physical differences between Dragonflies and Damselflies?

Dragonfly

Damselfly:

The most striking difference is generally the body shape and size, generally (with a few exceptions) the Damselfly is much smaller and more delicately built than a Dragonfly. Damselflies look like a little piece of cotton flying around, whereas the Dragonfly is a much bigger insect. The position of the eyes is another important distinguishing factor. Dragonflies have much larger compound eyes that seem to join together at the front of their face, where the Damselfly has much smaller compound eyes that are clearly divided on both sides of the head. Another factor when distinguishing between the two is wing shape and how the wings lay when the insect is at rest. When settled the Dragonflies wings come to rest spread outwards, while the Damselflies wings come to rest neatly folded up above their backs, however there are a few exceptions to this rule.

Do Dragonflies or Damselflies pose any risk to humans?

For some or the other reason there are quite a few old wives tales and myths about these creatures that are simply not true and hence a lot of people are needlessly terrified of them. They do not have any sort of stinger on their tails or anywhere else on their bodies. Many people also say that they can deliver a painful bite, while this may be true, they will never land on you and bite you. Humans are simply not a part of their dinner menu. The only time they will bite is if they are physically held in the hand, then they will bite out of self-defence and even then the bite does not contain any venom and in most cases does not even penetrate the skin.

As an insect photographer, I love photographing Dragonflies and Damselflies, however their brilliant eye sight often makes that easier said than done.

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