Dragonfly

 




Dragonfly

Giant eyes, hairy jaws, spiked feet – a monster with sophisticated design to kill, and terrifyingly efficient. Back in time... a lot of time... we would have been cowering, shooing it away... if we had been there. Happily, we were not. This most efficient of all 



 predators was big... in an era of giants. It was the Carboniferous Period, 320 million years ago. With all the dramatic changes through time since, the mega-giant T. rex went extinct, but our googly-eyed monster did not.


It continues to patrol right now, above and below... but a miniature version. They are the most efficient predator of all predators which have been studied, with a higher success rate than killer whales or birds of prey. They are the damselflies


 and dragonflies 


Airborne, it is the beautiful flash of colour darting about your garden and pond in summer.


 But right now, it is efficiently on the hunt below winter watery reflections.


It waits in ambush and makes a grab, taking only 15-40 milliseconds to snatch its victim with its pincers before

they can react and escape. By contrast a human blink lasts on average 100-150 milliseconds. They are as they were - they have not had to upgrade their ancient Carboniferous design.

This underwater stage in the lives of dragonflies or damselflies is the nymph/larva. They can be months or years at the bottom of your pond (up to 5 years depending on species, temperature and food availability.) They are as formidable at that young, underdeveloped stage as the adults.


 Dragonfly nymphs/larvae tend to be larger, with broader and flatter bodies, often with a pointed abdomen. Damselfly nymphs are usually smaller and thinner and less tapered abdomen, echoing their adult differences.

Damselfly larvae have 3 external gills - fan-like structures at the tip of the abdomen - photo above- to extract oxygen from the water.

Dragonfly larvae have taken the extraction of oxygen from water to another level... gills are internal in the rectum, and muscular contractions draw water in through the rear and force it over the gills then out. The water is expelled from the anus, but ... wait for it! Expelling this water can also serve as 'jet propulsion' and be used as locomotion to escape from its predators.


Don’t forget Nature Chain’s big Pond Event next Thursday 15th!





https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/events/2026-01-15-ponds-creating-and-maintaining-home-wildlife


Wildlife Pond Tips:

To help these amazing ancient creatures -

provide muddy edges for burrowing and leave submerged rocks and debris as hiding and hunting places.


Avoid disturbing them as Winter sets in. But Late Winter (before February) is a good time to carefully and cautiously divide emergent plants/ clear any excess vegetation, keeping an eye out for any larvae. It is important not to leave this too late so returning newts can breed unmolested.


Maintain good water quality by having plenty of submerged plants like Milfoil, Hornwort. These offer shelter, are oxygenators, and provide ‘climbing poles’ for Spring emergence.


Iris, Yellow Flag are good emergent plants. Floating ‘umbrella leaves’ of Frogbit and Water Lilies provide good hiding places... for them to catch larvae, including mosquito larvae... to our benefit!


In the drier(?!) part of my garden beyond, a magpie dropped a beautiful iridescent feather


, matching up with the purple and pink of a few Winter flowers – Iris and Heather



. Flower food for insects... which have been conspicuously absent during this colder spell.


Picture credits: 1,2 - Bob Drower; 6 Slimbridge - pondlife display; others – Nicolette Scourse.







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