The dragonfly

📖 In short

The dragonfly is a beautiful flying insect with four clear, shiny wings like glass and a long thin body colored red, green or blue. We see dragonflies flying near ponds and rivers on sunny days.

🤩 Did you know?

A dragonfly can fly up to 80 kilometers an hour!
Millions of years ago there were giant dragonflies with wingspans of more than 70 centimeters.
An adult dragonfly lives only a few weeks or months.
Dragonflies have lived on Earth since before the dinosaurs.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A skilled pilot

A dragonfly can fly forwards, backwards and sideways, and hover in the air, because it moves each of its four wings separately. It's one of the fastest insects.

🔍 Huge eyes

A dragonfly's eyes are huge and cover most of its head, and each has thousands of tiny lenses, so it sees almost all around without turning its head.

💡 The mosquito hunter

A dragonfly catches mosquitoes and flies in mid-air, scooping them up with its basket-like legs. So it's a helpful friend that cuts down the number of mosquitoes.

🎯 A childhood underwater

A female dragonfly lays her eggs in water, and out comes a nymph that lives underwater for months or years. Then it climbs up a plant and climbs out of its skin as a dragonfly with wings.