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Water
My Life as a Dragonfly
As a dragonfly, I began life as an egg among pond weeds. In two weeks, I hatched into a nymph, with a spider-like body. I remained a nymph for about two years. All this time, I was underwater eating tasty mosquito larvae, water lice, and small fish. As a nymph, I molted about twelve times, each time shedding my outer skin so that I had room to grow. After two years, I climbed out of the water. When I reached the fresh air, my outer layer split again and I wiggled out, opening my wings for the first time. Hooray! In a few hours, I began flying and catching insects. Over the next few weeks, I searched for a mate. What a life!
Order: Odonata
Size: two to four inches long
Range: marshes, wetlands, parks, and gardens throughout the world
Diet: other insects
Characteristics: have large compound eyes; can be violet, green or red; are very strong fliers
Significance: helps keep insect populations down by eating creatures like mosquitoes, which can spread disease
Young dragonflies turn into adults in a process called:
shedding
growing up
metamorphosis
Correct!
Lots of creatures go through a metamorphosis as they grow. Tadpoles turn into frogs, caterpillars into butterflies, and nymphs into adult dragonflies.
A dragonfly nymph is born with gills when it hatches from its egg.
Fact
OR
Fiction
?
Fact
Gills come in pretty handy when you live underwater! Female dragonflies lay their eggs just above or just below the water surface.
A dragonfly fossil from 250 million years ago has a wingspan of 28 inches -- that's more than 2 feet wide!
Fact
OR
Fiction
?
Fact
Dragonflies today are much smaller than the ones that flew through the skies during the Permian age. Most dragonflies have wingspans that are about 5 inches.