Wednesday, July 11, 2007

dragonflies



You know, I can appreciate dragon flies. Look how cool they look:




I did some research and found out the following factiods:




  • Smallest-The smallest dragonfly in the world is probably the Nannophya pygmaea (Pigmy Dragonfly), from eastern Asia. It has a total length of approximately 15mm (0.6 inches) and a wing span of only about 20mm (0.8 inches).


  • Largest: The largest modern day odonate in the world is a actually a damselfly from Central and South America, Megaloprepus coerulatus, with a wing span of approximately 180mm (7.1 inches). The largest dragonfly appears to be the Giant Petaltail (Petalura ingentissima) from northeastern Australia; however, there is some argument about this. The Giant Petaltail has a wingspan of approximately 160mm (6.3 inches). Some claim, however, that the Giant Hawaiian Darner (Anax strenuus) is the largest. We have not been able to find the measurements for this dragonfly, but will continue to search for them.

  • The largest ever (that we know of): an ancient fossil found to be about 30 inches wide (Can you say Holy Dragonfly Shit, Batman!?)


  • They eat mosquitos and other little buggies, plus worms, and anything else that will stayt still long ebough...


  • There are close to 2400 species known, about 400 of which are in the U.S.


Here's a shot of the Green Darner:



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

...something tells me that if that dragonfly with the 30 inch wingspan was still around today, we'd be on the menu....

Eric

Holder said...

Only if we're really, really, still for a long time.

Chickie Carmarthen said...

I used to be scared to death of "helicopters" (what we called them as kids) - but then someone told me they don't bite people, just other insects so know I like them. Don't ruin it for me by telling me that they do bite people - I like my fantasy...