If you look at the dragonfly, it causes associations with something light, carefree, fluttering. Dragonfly is a big toiler. From the early morning until sunset, she flutters, earning herself food over water in the form of midges, mosquitoes and flies.
Interestingly, the dragonfly can be called a "nurse", because it catches insects that annoy both people and animals. Some large representatives can be found far from the water: in a meadow, near houses, in gardens. The medieval chroniclers also loved to describe the flight of dragonflies.
Dragonfly Vision
Separately, it is necessary to note the vision of dragonflies. They are just great! Still - huge, faceted eyes, allow the dragonfly to see everything around 360 degrees and in different directions - front and rear. It really helps dragonflies in the hunt. Dragonfly colors are not immediately discerned by the eyes. The upper sections are black and white, the lower ones are colored.
What does a dragonfly eat?
Dragonfly - a real predator. She grabs her victim with powerful jaws, helping her forelegs, and quickly eats right on the fly. If the prey caught is too large, the dragonfly sits on the grass to eat the caught insect. Dragonfly's appetite is simply amazing. For a full day of hunting, a dragonfly can catch and eat about 650 insects. She gobbles up her victim, for some 15 seconds. In general, watching the flight and hunting of dragonflies is an amazing and fascinating sight. Dragonfly is an amazing virtuoso when it comes to flying and planning in the open.Probably, after observing the dragonflies, people created a helicopter.
Lifestyle
The dragonfly spends his whole life in the air. There she dines and creates a family there. The place where the future offspring will grow, the male chooses. He guards the female while she lays her eggs. These "flyers" place their eggs on aquatic plants. When a larva emerges from an egg, it lives in a river or lake for about 3 years. During this long time, it molts several times, dropping the shell. It is interesting that, even being in the larval stage, the dragonfly does not stop hunting. And when there is not enough food in the pond, the dragonfly larvae begin to eat each other.
In the end, the cycle ends, and now an adult full-fledged individual appears. Dragonfly lives about 3 to 4 weeks. During this short time, the dragonfly manages to destroy many harmful blood-sucking insects.
The benefits of dragonflies
Dragonflies, both adults and larvae, are of great benefit. As mentioned earlier, they eat harmful insects. In some regions of Russia there are dragonflies that destroy horseflies and gadflies. In Russia, more than 50 species of dragonflies are found. And on the African continent there is a type of dragonfly that destroys tsetse flies, which are a carrier of a terrible virus.
It should also be noted that the dragonfly is a symbol of courage and fearlessness for the inhabitants of Japan. And many poets and writers mention dragonflies in their works.
Very often dragonflies inhabit areas where they are not, but where they are needed. It is best to import larvae.When they are released into rivers and lakes, they create their own microclimate and are better adapted. In the future, the hatched dragonflies behave at home. It also happens that at the moment of danger dragonflies behave in such a way that a person sees - this is a warning. For example, when a fire.
Dragonflies are our friends. This should be known even to children who often catch and kill dragonflies. And scientists, in turn, will reveal to the world a couple of dozen species.
